Just Use Money (SI)
by 2Royal2Jello
Summary: What's the one thing that everyone in Worm needs but doesn't get? Besides therapy. Worm Self Insert genre.
1. Chapter 1

My alarm was particularly loud today.

I moved over to turn off my phone when my arm collided into something plastic. Ugh. This again.

 _This alarm sounds kind of weird._

I sat up. The bedside table was wrong, and perched on it was a thick plastic alarm clock. _What the hell?_

I hit the thing and looked around the room. Shit.

I was in a... random apartment somewhere. It _seemed_ like it was just me living here. There was the double bed I was sleeping on, a table, a minifridge and a little kitchen room that it lead to. Where am I?

I suddenly noticed that I was _capable_ of seeing the rest of the room, which surprised me much more. I looked over to the table on my right and lo and behold, there were glasses. However, they looked nothing like my own. Following the logic, I look down at myself and gawp.

... Yep. Still my body.

Ahaha... Fuck, I had genuinely been expecting to had been someone else. I've been reading too many stories. I guess someone mistook me for the person who has the apartment or I was drunk or something?

I roll out of the bed and make my way to the kitchen when a realisation strikes me.

I'm a teenager again, aren't I?

I find a little bathroom and look at myself in the mirror for long enough to see myself say, "Shit." Then I immediately grin, because _who gets a second chance to be a teenager?_

Right. This is going to be a glorious day. Just as long as I can figure out where the hell I am.

 _Man, how am I going to figure out what day it is if I haven't got a mobile phone? Sundial?_

.

.

"Fucking, _finally,"_ I panted.

After half an hour I finally dredged up my wallet from a heap of clothes that I'd never worn beside the bed. The ID was fake, but it had my new name - Chris Allen - and my school... Winslow High. That sounds somewhat familiar?

Fuck... If this is Worm I am going to chew my own arms off.

I scour the room but there's no other information to back up the statement. I'm going to go on a limb and assume that I'm not being pranked, and that some Random Omniscient Being just decided to dump me here. Why would I even guess that I was a teenager like that?

Oh god. I have a feeling from now on I'm going to go insane thinking that _"thinkers_ " are anticipating exactly what I will do.

Well you aren't ruining my day. Fuck it, if I'm now trapped in - what is pretty much a privacy-invading dystopia if you've 'contracted' superpowers - then _fine._ I'll do... Whatever I do. At least thank Christ I got up early today. Like I want to _gain peoples attention_ in Winslow. Man, should I even bother attending?

No, it's probably best if I go. But I don't give two shits about Taylor. Actually - before I test _anything_ else - I need to see if I have a power. There is no chance in hell that I am going to be railroaded if I have a choice here.

I closed my eyes and squeezed my concentration. I pushed my brain, imploring a deeper connection.

I opened my eyes and examined my body. Nothing.

I tried again... Pushing harder into my cerebral cortex, imploring some higher connection to the alien mothership. Ironically true.

 _A flicker._

Fuck yes!

I then promptly fell over. Oww, my brain. I shouldn't have done that standing. Well, for what it was, that was basically a bust. But I'm pretty sure that something _is_ there, so at least I don't think that I'm up shit creek without a paddle.

... Holy shit. I forgotten about the Nazis. This is going to be _hell._

No. I refuse, or do not want to play part of a stereotypical game. _And that's the part that you get slaughtered for in a world where the worst thing always happens_.

Fine, whatever. I'm going to go to Winslow as a light brown, tanned European - but not black - guy. Fuck my life.

.

.

The Chris Allen name was a joke, wasn't it?

So I found the date - it's currently the 1st of January, 2011. In alternate dimension hell. On the plus side, it has no Facebook, and people are still not all using phones. Because duh, social media isn't a thing, thanks to all the technological disasters.

I found the school by asking a couple of people for directions, and made my way inside. To be fair, it's not as shit as it's usually described. But hell, I'd thought a lot in the past that American high schools just didn't sound fun. From media it seems like they're rife with bullying and such. And _this one_ has sociopathic gang members.

Though it's probably because I came in super early. That's one thing that I'm likely going to do every day, simply because I'm probably more likely to avoid gang stuff if I get there early and I leave early. This is just assuming the worst though. Worst comes to worst I can not come back, or look for one of the other schools. What were they - ah, Immaculata High (if I ever found money) and Arcadia, both of which had _convenient_ leaflets on my table.

Shit, actually. This is kind of a do-or-die for whether I want to be registered onto Winslow - they'd probably check on me if I don't come back.

I sat down in one of the chairs outside of the waiting room, and sank my chin in my palm. Well, for one thing, I wouldn't be interfering with canon. On the other hand, I wouldn't have the connections to survive unless I happened to _meet Panacea_ or something. And Brockton Bay is going to shit. I would move somewhere else... But I've read self inserts. These guys get targeted to hell and back. At least I _know_ Brockton Bay - corruption and all. That and all the sob stories of all the superpowered residents, which self inserts such as myself use to ruthless degrees.

Hrm. Well, otherwise I'm just going to be trapped in my room too paranoid to do stuff. I concede, though I'll fill my registration in with as much fake information as possible. Hopefully _Winslow -_ of all fictional horrible schools - won't bother checking to see my home address. I'll keep the name Chris Allen - assuming that the paperwork that I'm registered under so far is that shoddy that the ROB just allowed me to change my name on a dime.

The seagul outside the window made a long, annoying guttural noise. _I'm going to go mad thinking these things are intentional, nevermind._

 _Right._ I stood up. Time to head to this office. But I swear, if this is like one of those stupid arbitrary self inserts where painful encounters keep happening, I'm either moving away or committing death-by-Lung before someone like _Cauldron_ can come grab me.

Famous last words.

* * *

She nodded towards me as I shook her hand, before heading off to sit on her chair.

"Hi, Principal Blackwell." I'm with the PRT. "I'm Chris Allen."

"Hello. Are you familiar with all of the lessons that you have to take?" She asked. I noticed she had a little acne on her cheeks.

"No... If you could show me where I could find a timetable, that would be great."

"Sure. I'll print one off," she replied, moving to her computer.

Dear ROB: Please just turn off all the conflict in the world so I can have fun please?

"Damn, we're out of ink."

Guh.

* * *

I made my way over to maths class - Math - now that I'm in America.

The teacher was talking to the class over some basic quadratics.

I walked right back away and down the hall.

Fuck! I just realised - Greg Veder. This isn't just any old world - this world you can't just walk in and say, 'uhhh.. uhhh... excuse me', because it will actually _kick the shit out of you_. I hope I'm not just being overly paranoid, but why would someone like Greg Veder get beat up like that? _Hyper_ boosted bullying, with gang warfare power plays even on the smaller scale. I'd rather wait for the next class.

Fortunately, computer lab had some space before I came in. I made my greetings and took up a seat. I was 90% sure this was the right class - heck, it was even supposed to have Gladys Knott, whenever the lesson started.

Some idle browsing and the lesson had finally come around. I was given one or two glances, but it looks like I hadn't really been recognised as a potential newcomer. As a side, wow - I hadn't even realised how young I am. 15 year olds are still _tiny._

 _Good, but they are going to get more uneasy if I don't introduce myself here._ I approached Ms Knott, "Miss. Can I introduce myself to the class?"

She smiled encouragingly, "Yeah, go ahead."

Good. I stood up in front of the projector space. Half of the class deigned to look at me, most of them preoccupied with their computers. Ideal, hopefully.

"Hi everyone. I'm Chris Allen. I'm new, and uhh yeah, I'm now part of your class." I quickly tacked on, "No need to cheer or anything." I stood for a solid couple more seconds before walking back to my seat and sitting down.

Ms Knott clapped, and a couple people gave it token applause. I had a couple looks sent my way as I sat back down, but nothing too ridiculous so far. Gladys took the register.

"Yo, I'm Francis," spoke a guy sat beside me on my left. He looked fairly normal. "Welcome to Winslow."

I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. You already know my name."

 _"-Allen, Chris-,"_ called Ms Knott.

"-Here!" I called back out.

I turned back to the guy. I was at a loss for anything more important to say. I'd kind of already done school. "What kind of class is this?"

"Oh, Ms Knott usually sets us programming stuff but most people just tend to browse during the lesson."

"Oh cool. Know any good games websites?"

 _"-Hebert, Taylor-"_

 _"-Here!" spoke a girl's voice.  
_

I looked up and spotted Taylor on the opposite side. Yeah, she was pretty much the Americanised version of what I was expecting, although a lot smaller. Smaller-bigger? I'm also younger than I was. Anyway, she didn't look _that_ thin at all. Crazy how much words must've been exaggerated about her.

I didn't want to be caught looking at her for too long, but in what I quickly gathered - dark hair, slightly tense looking posture - too quick movements, and a kind of bookish aesthetic. We were both wearing those early 2000s thin rim plastic-y glasses that nobody likes. Fun.

Anyway - _'Hee bert'._ At least now I know. I guess 'A bear' is the French way of saying it.

Francis looked at me and I turned back away from Taylor. "Randomly thought I'd heard something."

..

* * *

Taylor. Give me a damn way to communicate with you.

I glared at the paper in front of me. Taylor was on my left side, and we had one person desks so it would still raise suspicion - and more bullying - if I associated with her. Fucking sigh. You're serious? One person desks?

I don't particularly want to involve myself, but if it were me, I'd like to at least be informed of the shit to stay atop of. The problem is A. she hasn't triggered, B. she's isolationist and C. I have no plausible reason to start a conversation with her. One person desks.

Turns out that today was an optional school day, but many students were made to come due to poor grades anyway.

I quickly solved the Physics problem - protip: copy the workbook - and rested my head on my folded arms. Nobody particularly cared because it was a holiday technically anyway.

I focused on the source of my power. I felt it in the general area of where I thought my frontal cortex is.

I wanted to trace the connection I had to the power. But after feeling the it start to give way, I decided to go with it.

 _A floating surface in an small computer lab. Visible from 360 degrees. A fragment of an eye with pupil, floating in the air. Out of the view of a student idly browsing._

I quickly shut my power back off and jerked myself to sitting position. That was really impulsive. Actually, screw it - why not.

 _The pupil reforms into the anterior chamber and sclera. Dust was colliding with the eye fragment. It was solid. The eye ever so slowly attempts to make shape._

 _The eye sways to the side. A student notices.  
_

"AH!" shouted a teenager. I immediately shut my power off and twitched.

I tried to sneakily glance around. Nobody noticed, and Sophia wasn't in my class, thankfully. I would be a hair bit more paranoid if she was. As it stands it's some stupid kid thinking they saw a reflective blue thing in the air, which disappeared before anyone saw it. Good luck to that guy.

I relax into my seat. That was actually a decent prank. I had a bit of a headache, but it wasn't as ridiculous as this morning.

And I can make _projections?_ That's an odd choice of power.

What if I had gotten master powers?

Eh... I would've coped. I would've found the best way to keep going. The school may have actually worked out for a short time. I look over to Taylor, who is blissfully ignorant of her surroundings, tunnel visioned on her work. Whatever, I'll know when she triggers. For now there's not a lot I can do.

Simple plan - when she has insects, write something that her insects can see. Easy. Knowing how paranoid she is, she'd probably be tracking me - _unless_ she doesn't think that I'm suspicious. Though odds are she'll have enough bugs that she'd have tagged everyone at school.

I put my chin in both of my palms. What I would do to end this lesson early...

 _'Fuck Contessa, fuck Contessa, fuck Contessa.' -_ Nothing.

Well, maybe I could pull the wool over Taylor's eyes. I mean, a projection doesn't require any physical cue. I doubt that I have any reason to though. I'm not going to _ally_ myself with Taylor per se, but it might not be _bad_. Actually - no. It will most certainly be bad being linked with her. _Alexandria killing me to get to her probably, haha._ The best I can do is inform her and be a neutral party.

I am not a hero... Though I really need to experiment with my powers to figure out what I'm going to be doing. I decide to diligently make some _careless mistakes_ in my work.

Taylor would probably notice that. Fuck thinkers.

 _Maybe I should amuse myself by haunting the computer lab.  
_

* * *

A/N: I delayed the locker by a day so that I could lazily copy Wrecked by Magite, and get to have the protagonist mucking around in class instead.

So - there was a sudden optional educational half-day before school officially began! That would make sense, since most people would be recovering from their New Years festivities. I'll pretend Sophia manually had to move the contents of the locker by hand and clean it the night before, scowling the whole time haha.


	2. Chapter 2

I wonder if Earth Aleph has an ebook for Worm? Nah, that would be too convenient. I was walking home, and fortunately I noticed that my apartment was actually on the main road leading to Winslow. Good, because I really didn't want to catch the bus while I was here.

I briefly considered trying to send a projection to my apartment to see if anything was there, but ended up deciding against it. I'd probably fall over, and it's much easier to just practice it when I'm home.

I arrived, latched the key in and dumped everything on the table before going to check the fridge. No Contessa. Or Simurgh.

 _I could actually get used to this._

Also, the TV was working. From what it looked like, I guessed it was mostly re-runs of TV shows from Earth Aleph - they had pretty decent budget effects work. There were also a few ordinary talk shows usually set somewhere warmer, like California. Not like I'm a native US resident. Brockton Bay was surprisingly warm though.

Once I'd finished my impromptu TV dinner I'd decided it was high time to learn what my powers can do.

I closed my eyes and drifted into the space I still assumed was my frontal lobe.

 _A cat jumps as the eye dissolves into place. An old woman shuffles as she stares at herself in her mirror, unawares to the eye. A nose bridge forms. The woman stares at her dress.-_

That wasn't as bad for my head, but I'm not having much success aiming it. If I'm not careful I might out myself.

I moved towards the furthest side of my apartment and tried again with a bit more oomph.

 _Eye emerges. Corner of a bed. Nose bridge and philtrum forms. Spectacles form as other eye takes shape. Dust connects with projection lens. Room is empty._

Oww. This is taking forever. What am I missing?

I decide to idle around watching Earth Aleph cartoons - unless they were from a time when Japan was above the sea level, then I grab some milk and head for bed. I eye the Hero pajamas carefully.

...

I glance at the clock. 4am.

I wonder what I would need to do to send a projection to Winslow? Might as well give it a shot.

 _Nothing_.

I don't think that it's working... It might have a specific range. Maybe. If so, that would probably be a good thing. Otherwise I might fry my brain.

I can't sleep though. It's at this point that I kind of wanted a phone and access to fan fiction. _Cape fiction is a thing here right?_

It's kind of creepy writing it for real people, but heck, it might give me some ideas for what I can do with my powers. Note to self: write cape fiction about Glory Girl and Panacea with authors note, 'What? It's just pairings'.

If I'm not going to sleep, I might as well decide on what I plan to do. In all honestly, there's probably nothing more that I want besides being Security without a hero complex. I don't care about Scion.

What can I do with my powers? Well... It's looking like theft. And that by necessity fails, unless Cauldron deems it as okay. I still think that I'm missing something about it. My range isn't looking good enough to being used for scouting. There's a purpose for it being physical, but it's too small to be something like _the Siberian_.

What does sound the best is something civilian. Not even kidding. I'm not sure about using my powers properly, but it seems like half of the issues in Worm could be solved with basic military training and common sense. Shoot out their legs or something.

I just want to convince some capes to work with the police honestly. The main problem of Worm is that all of the legal power is in the hands of the PRT. Having other authorities breaks that. If Taylor simply said 'I'm a cape for hire' and worked with the police - even explaining Shadow Stalker behind closed doors - then that _might_ work. But then she wouldn't work with the Undersiders. I'll tell her and let her decide.

I'm going to need a gun. I don't want to play by the unwritten rules, so the best thing I can do so far is avoid capes the best I can. Oooh, maybe I could use my projection to guide my shots. I need to test if I can feel pain through them though.

* * *

As I get out of bed I step on something.

My fucking glasses.

I quickly make sure that I'm wearing them.

Shit! My glasses were part of the projection.

... Well. Now, my immediate reaction is to jump in celebration at what I'm guessing is _something from nothing_. But if there's anything that Worm has taught me, it's that some things are arbitrary.

Still, "Woo." I say, cautiously, before glancing around at my apartment. I practically run for the furthest point in my apartment, then double back to find something to test it on.

A hat would obviously work I think. What would be a challenge? I settle on grabbing my keys from the table, and shuffle into the corner.

I put my concentration to showing my hand by the bed.

 _Arm hairs emerge before skin of forearm takes shape. Bed below, wall mirror reflects shape of arm. Skinny wrist gives way to metal ring. Key form emerges onto ring.-_

-Oww, my brain. Maybe I could get better at aiming it so I can generate objects better. I nurse my head and make my way back over to take a look.

"Woo!" I exclaim. FUCK YEAH. There's a key resting on the duvet blanket. Right - comforter.

My old woman neighbour bangs the wall next door.

"Sorry." I pause and grin before trying again, "Woo."

You know what? Fuck Winslow. We're testing out how to get the most out of this immediately. I pick up a dollar and reactivate my power.

 _A bed. Empty room. A palm emerges from the air. Dust touches the palm. A dollar, composed of cotton, silk and linen, appears. Fi-  
_

-I break it, then put down the dollar. That was a lot less of my body than last time. I start again.

 _A bedroom table and alarm clock. A reflective blue palm appears from the surrounding air. The palm immediately swerves. The palm touches the table and disconnects.  
_

No pain. That was certainly better than my last idea of 'throw rocks at it in the middle of the stairway'. I smiled and let my excitement really take me over.

I move to the bedroom and examine the dollar. Exact copy - fantastic. Ultimately, I'd rather not be someones' informant or be a _vigilante_ if I don't _have to_. I think with this power, I might be able to live for myself _._ I grin with greed. _Money._

Must resist the urge to act like Montgomery Burns. I hastily get dressed - goodbye Hero pajamas - and make my way out of the apartment. As long as I don't have to do those roles, I'm happy. Actually, I probably wouldn't be at Winslow either, unless it's necessary as a cover... Shit. I'll have to think about it. For now I wonder if I even have a bank account, and how much I should store in it.

Would they have 'tinkertech' to figure out carbon copies? There are also a lot of banks out there.

By the time I'm down the street I'm planning spreading out the money, getting bigger bills and trying to replicate stacks. The glasses seemed to work, and I could probably unscrew them. Kind of makes me wonder if I should do it for diamonds, gold and other valuable materials. I haven't really got a fence or anything, and I assume that it's a lot more dangerous handling actual valuable materials.

Cash though? I don't think so. I could start living comfortably. Maybe even hire a private tutor. Though I'd need to make it look feasible for how I got the money, and not alert the Number Man or Cauldron. Bit of a fat chance.

I could get started by looking for a fence. But who would I trust? Hrm.

I yawned and made my way to class. There were probably a lot of people that probably weren't here yesterday.

I stopped as I heard banging in the hall. _What could possibly..?_

It took me all of a few seconds to realise what is going on when the smell hit me.

Shit! It's fucking Taylor.

...

Damn.

I move slowly closer before glancing around. The hallways are empty. She'd stopped banging. I paused.

 _Well... This is a conundrum._

Taylor started again, frantically beating down her locker door from the inside. "Help-please! Someone!"

I rested my chin on my palm intentionally calmly and slowly. There is no point panicking.

I need to think through the noise and smell. I have money now. I can do whatever I want. I think. As long as I play it well.

Do I want to live Taylors life, taking her duties? Do I want her to _owe_ me? No... No.

Do I live my own life, or do I live for Taylor?

She hit the metal, "Help me!"

Well, this is what it's like. Being a self insert and not living to 'right wrongs'. This is necessary. I'm not just going to conveniently pop up in her life as her saviour or to grab the glory.

I suppose in a way I'm glad that this happened - that I wasn't _made_ to save her or skip the painful decision. This is what heroes would look like in this universe. Conflict powers.

I withheld a snort and walked away quietly.

A black girl approached from an empty classroom, "Pathetic, isn't she?"

"Hm? Oh, her?" Sophia... Fantastic. It looked like she was waiting.

"Yeah, _Hebert,_ " she sneered. "You like her?"

"Nope."

"Huh. Good. She's actually pretty slutty. I thought she deserved to be shamed for it." _Indirectly asking people for approval..._

I nodded, "Yeah-to be honest, it just smelled pretty awful. I was wondering what that was."

She grinned, "Mm. _It does smell bad._ " She outstretched her hand, "I'm Sophia Hess."

I shrugged and shook it. Oddly forward. "Chris. What's up? Haven't you got class?"

"I've got track," she replied nonchalantly.

"'Jealous. I should probably head off to mine," I said, not immediately making a move to the class. It's high school again - I can wait.

"How did an English guy get into Winslow?" She asked.

I relaxed. "Well I highly doubt I'm that rare." I paused, "You make it sound like I'm some mystical being or something."

"Nope. Well maybe... Just weird."

I grinned. "Well, duh. 'Course I'm weird. Anyway, yeah, you sock it to this Taylor or whatever. I've heard a lot about this Gladly guy."

There was a space of silence where her eyes roamed the hallway. "... Yeah, he's a loser. He'd be fine if you were late."

I tilted my head. "Oh really? Huh. Alright then. I might just grab some breakfast."

I paused like I was genuinely considering it. "Nah, actually. I might as well head off."

She dismissed me, "Kay. Bye."

I nodded and spent a second thinking up something witty. "Respect for a fellow non-white person. We gotta stick together."

She snorted. I glanced back to her as I walked to class. Just standing where she is.

Well that was something. I wonder if my adulthood is just more naturally confident than all the teens around me. Sigh. Fuck sakes. Well, it's going to be embarrassing when people realise that I'm just a giant nerd. I mean, I'm wearing baby glasses.

On second thought, contacts aren't even available, are they? Shit. I'm going to need to _pay_ Panacea. Yet another _random_ person that I'll have to go out of my way to do something for.

Maybe I could get her to work for me.

* * *

A/N: I felt like I'd covered a lot, so it's pretty sparse in actual agency-driven actions this chapter.

Whoops! Thanks modeluchosen1. I should really add the disclaimer I'll be adding for SV and SB - **this is a self insert written by someone who hasn't _read_ Worm** (bar extracts). Wish me luck that I don't butcher it by accidentally incorporating fandom. Yeah, it's a cliche start, though I kind of wouldn't want to get dropped into Worm any other way tbh.  
I will be removing all the egregious errors that I find. They'll probably show up most in bits not covered by fan stories or viewed as less important.

Also, as an interesting tidbit, Wildbow says that Taylor wouldn't have been suicidal even if she hadn't had her powers. Neat. On the Parahumans subreddit 2szsy2 (slash) what_wouldve_happened_to_taylor_if_shed_never (slash) cnuqjfd


	3. Chapter 3

Throughout the day I kept a _proverbial_ eye on Taylor. It was mostly pointless, but I wanted to feel like I was doing something.

I walked by a few times, and once when Sophia - who constantly 'happened to be' in the area - had accidentally slipped. I laughed while Madison lifted her back up, with some assistance from Emma, but had to get moving before I became a target for the trio.

I'd also made a new friend with an asian guy in Mr Gladly's class that I wasn't sure belonged to the ABB or not. Fun times. Also with all the neo-nazis that were in school compared to yesterday, I'd decided that yes, a gun would be handy. The E88 weren't _that_ bad, but would I go out in this city _at night_? Hahaha no.

And so it's been a day and a half of school and I was mostly just feeling homesick for my old one. No popularity contests and more normies. The girls in class also focused on Mr G and the popular girls, and I had a palpable sense that they wouldn't talk to me unless it was for flirting. Gender gap meet Winslow.

Hrm... I wonder if that'll make talking to Taylor harder.

By the time I was back at my locker, Francis from the lab - Baker was apparently his last name - was there. He'd also brought Mike, one of his friends. _Insert Mike Allen joke._

"Hey Chris. You wanna go to Fugly Bobs?" _Huh. It must genuinely be_ _a_ thing.

"-You seen the locker thing?" I interjected.

He paused, "Yeah, it's fucked up."

"How come nobody is doing anything about it?"

"Sophia and the twins basically run the school."

Mike hummed and did a so-so gesture.

I tilted my head. "... They don't look alike."

"They're hot though."

"Yeah." I agreed. When they were older though. Was there a policy for reversed age?

"Also. We're going to go bowling after Fugly Bobs."

Mike put in his input, "Or the arcade. Audio Runner is really fun."

"Eh... Nah to that. I'll come Fugly Bobs though."

Mike shrugged, "Cool."

I grabbed my stuff from my locker.

Yeah... I think I'll avoid using it in the future honestly. No air ducts.

"Come on. Let's get going," Mike spoke up, walking off and adjusting his bag.

I caught up to them. "Have you guys got games consoles?"

"Nope. I got Manslaughter on PC though."

We walked towards the front entrance of the school, where the janitor was rushing around frantically. Finally.

"LAN?" I asked.

"What's LAN?" "-Who plays LAN?"

* * *

For those that don't know, Worm is basically a story of popular kids bullying less popular ones. The popular kids are corrupt police. The protagonist stays unpopular throughout, and as a result nobody acknowledges her heroic deeds.

And Worm is a DYSTOPIA.

Now how to avoid thinkers...

Tattletale. The last thing I want is to walk around where she can spot me and tell Coil about a 'mysterious projection user' - resulting in me getting _disappeared_.

I'm also kinda doubtful of inferring my identity online. This is because Dragon - the AI - can just decide to tell the PRT. And they themselves might try to engineer a _coincidence_ where I work 'with' them. At the very least, they'll track me down and wait for an opportune time. Honestly, it's kind of 'thinker' hell.

Gallant can't do shit, and for all intents and purposes Contessa is dead. And the Simurgh is also dead.

Spies and informants in schools, banks and everywhere else? Fuck if I know.

I chewed on my bacon rasher.

"I kind of want to go to Arcadia," I mused.

"Well duh. Arcadia is actually good," Francis responded.

"What? You don't think Winslow is good?" I quipped.

Mike chipped in, "It has some good stuff. Mrs Mary is a good teacher. Same as Mr. Quinlan."

I'd _been_ to high school _._

"Ehh.. I kind of doubt it."

"Hey France." Mike said, swallowing his piece of burger. "What do you think of Clarendon High?"

"Nothing, why?"

"Nah, it just seemed like a place with good looking girls."

I piped up, "You guys hear about the Faraday Cage around Arcadia?"

"Of course." "Duh," they replied.

"Well how would they even afford that?"

"No clue." I could almost fill in a 'Glory Girl is hot though' with these guys. "But must be hard for them to let superheroes out of there."

" _If_ superheroes attend Arcadia," added Mike.

Me and Francis both glanced at him, "Most likely." "Eh."

Francis picked up the thread, "I kind of want to meet a cape."

I finished my chips - fries. "Yeah, but they all suck."

He gave me a look and laughed, "Oh I forget. You and capes."

"I'm telling you - alien pieces fractured up and infected peoples brains. Super evolved aliens right - _they'd need dimensional powers and shit._ "

Mike laughed and gave the rest of his burger a glance.

"And conflict powers." I ate some chips. "Nah, just kidding - but they definitely have to have a decent budget to buy their outfits."

"No kidding. I bet New Wave paid for the Faraday Cage."

"Do you reckon the government funds them for being heroes?"

Mike replied, "I doubt it. They probably get enough money from press and merchandise."

The waitress came by. "More coffee boys?"

"Yes please," I yawned. "Any of you guys want to be my fence?"

Francis laughed while Mike didn't. Didn't know what a fence was I guess.

It kinda seems like I have no strats against Tattletale apart from making sure the money is legit all in one go. I'm 90% sure that duplicated money is fine, but I need to check if I want an official front business or to use it in general. Are there more banks than the Central Bank? Hm.

"Well. I've genuinely been thinking that if I had all the money in the world, what I would do."

"I'd get a mansion. Might be outside of Brockton Bay."

"Casino," replied Mike.

I gave him a incredulous look. "Nevermind. _Plausibly_ then. You'd get _racketeered,_ " I dragged the word out, "by the ABB like hell."

"Why a fence?"

"Pretend like Brockton Bay is filled with a bunch of cape thieves." I smirked.

Mike started, "I'd kill off the thieves. Or open my own bank."

"Oh yeah, you were saying that New Wave might not get funded. Yeah, I'd buy New Wave. Photon Mom."

I chimed in, "Nah, fuck New Wave. Brandish is a shit lawyer."

"Oooh. I'd buy tinkertech. That shit would be cool."

Oh man, that is genius. I could try replicating tinkertech. "Nice. Yeah, become like Batman."

"I was watching that earlier."

"I'd hire an army of Batman. Bat men."

I laughed. "That's not a bad idea though. Get some civilians, equip them all. Nah, I'd just buy tons of nukes."

"You want the bill?" The waitress asked, walking back over.

"Yes please." "Thanks."

"Also, can you exchange these notes for a $10 one?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

"... Glory Girl is hot though."

* * *

Alright. Enough screwing around. Time to wrack up some piles of cash.

I really wish that I could just hop online and search for 'how do people authenticate money?'

Oh that's right. The library. Duh.

It's also time to figure out how to get a gun, but money first. Being a non-US resident, finding out how to get a gun will no doubt be absurdly humorous to me.

I make my way to the library, studiously ignore the staff and find a book after an hour.

I haven't got a library card, but I make notes basically listing all of the aspects of authentication on a page torn out of my World Issues schoolbook. In short, it's the bill's material texture and thinness, print quality - and mistakes, serial numbers and finally watermarking. This includes UV watermarking which apparently only is there to show the value of the bill. The ink also changes colour, but that's not an issue. Lots of printing-related things.

After writing notes, I find somewhere relatively quiet and compare my duped dollar against my normal one. No difference.

So basically - I have _no issues whatsoever_. The only issue I have is serial numbers, and the book points out that the authorities look for large quantities of counterfit bills with the same serial number. The _implication_ I got from that was that serial number just denotes _batches_ of money instead of specific bills. It took a second to figure out a solution, but it's no problem for me. I can just duplicate other bills of the same value or swap some duped money for new ones. Anything like that.

 _That was surprisingly easy._ Maybe I won't need to go to the bank and risk being caught. And this world is 'unplugged'. I have no doubt in my mind that nobody here will actually notice if I hand a shop money with the same serial number. The only thing I was worried about was tinkertech in banks - but reading that removed a lot of my worries. And for all I know they haven't actually got any.

 _Or I could just go to private banks in other countries._

I make my way home.

So, plans for my civilian life. Because fuck trying to live out a cape life. I'm interested in hiring out Faultline's group with the money that I'll get. But I'll need some sort of safety if my projections get known and they want me to work for them. It's not likely _really_ , but what I got from the franchise was that rogues are in danger if they're not public. Might as well be safe.

I walk into the space beside the door and start duping my $10 bill.

 _A hand emerges. A bedroom corner. Into shape a dollar bill emerges made out of_ _cotton, silk and linen. Ink forms on the surface. The hand grows nail-  
_

I cancelled the projection. Hum. Right, so - _even if_ it were just me as a civilian businessman dealing with Faultline's group - capes have a superiority complex over people without powers. Civilian deaths _wherever_ I saw them portrayed with the franchise always seemed inconsequential - _trivial_ compared to _clearly important_ capes.

I grab the duped note and start copying the multiple bills a few times until I have $160 worth of the same $10 bill. Neato. I'm also getting better at generating less hand each time.

Time to go to the corner shop and exchange this for something else.

.

"Hey." I leaned toward the Irish man behind the counter. "Can I get one of the cigars and a bottle of Irish Cream whiskey?"

"Sorry. I can't serve minors," he replied with a blank tone.

I replied lower, "And for $30?"

He didn't reply and turned around for the Irish Cream. I also pointed at the cigar I wanted to buy. "That one."

"Thanks. Have a good day- oh actually." The whole reason I was here in the first place. Nearly forgot. "Can you exchange these four $10 notes for two $20s?" I didn't bother making up a reason.

"... Sure," he replied. Damn right you're sure, I'm handing you $30. "Your parents know you're buying these?"

"Yeah. We're going to celebrate."

Oh the joys of being 15 again. I looked like an adult then, and half the shops think I'm 18 now. Didn't work here though.

I get the two crisp $20 bills in exchange. Thank god they were crisp - I am not going to put out a ton of bills with repeating stains and tears in the exact same place. I'm not _totally_ dumb.

.

Once I get back, I open the fridge. _Hm. I wonder if I should just pay Leet from Uber and Leet to make a perfect money-printing machine..._

On second thought, nah. They'd probably keep it for themselves. I haven't really got any weapons or practice for if Uber says, 'Wow, great idea! Now go away, I have a gun.' _And_ it'd require time first getting him into making lethal weapons so his power doesn't sabotage it. _Is Sword Art Online a weapon?_

Fuck, if pay-to-win games existed I'd just go to Greg. I could just hand him a ton of money and let him buy stuff and then sell his in-game purchases for some legitimate money. Then I could just pay him for that.

 _Man, I have zero financial knowledge._ I start preparing a quick cold dinner with some meats and browse for something interesting on the TV to listen to. ' _Maybe I should plan how to kidnap Dinah Alcott,'_ I thought with humour. _  
_

All I want to do is to make sure that my money passes through as many hands as possible, so that it's very hard for the Number Man to find me.

I suppose the first course of action would be to either launder the money through _cape-assisted identity fraud_ or become an 'angel' investor or something. _But not for something community-based_. Yes, I'm aware that Kaiser runs Medhall, and Coil creates Endbringer shelters. Cry me a river.

I _could_ just fund the dockworkers service in return for being anonymous.

 ** _Wait_**. Why don't I just travel to Boston and ask Accord to _launder it for me_? I can pay him in return, and it's far away enough that they don't search through what the dockworkers are doing. In the meantime I could spend money on well preserved dollars and notes or whatever.

I jumped onto the sofa - couch - and started eating the food. I lowered the volume on the cooking show I left on. _I think I can work with that!_

 _I'm still assuming that the serial numbers are for batches._

I can duplicate whatever money I can get in person, then I can risk buying cheap good condition notes (read: modern ones) with that online. I could ask someone else to do it.

Then from there I can dupe them until I have a lot of good condition notes that I've never personally touched - notes that have a variety of serial numbers. I could even ask somebody to mess them up or store them somewhere so that they aren't 100% molecular copies.

The only flaws I see in the plan is the danger of buying the stuff myself online (basically giving out a ton of the exact same note early on depending on how I do it), and if Accord just decides to hold me hostage or takes my money and does nothing with it. I could promise him that he could use it as funding for his _plan_. That one about world peace and a Utopia.

I don't even need Accord! I only need him if I want to make big legitimate purchases and want to fool thinkers - wait, Dragon too - and the Number Man so that they don't see where my money comes from.

I celebrate and pour out some of the Irish cream whiskey. _Hmm... Gonna need to buy new glasses to drink from._

Finally! A working method. Awesome. And I can find other fences for smaller amounts of cash.

And on the utopia note, I'd prefer to see Dragon free. Though I am genuinely out of my league with taking down the Dragonslayers myself. And I don't really get any returns on that other than more safety. I prefer not to treat removal from captivity as a favour, so go figure.

I pick up the land line and open up the address book to find Francis Baker's home phone.

"Hi. Am I speaking to Francis?"

"Yeah, it's him."

"Yo! Come the fuck over this weekend with Mike. I'm gonna celebrate something."

 _Should I bring the ABB guy? Nah_.

"Yeah yeah, chill. It's like 10pm. Also get a mobile."

"Cool. Catch you tomorrow." I hang up.

...

Now to make a cape identity. Or a civilian one.

But first I need to get my priorities straight.

Money is a huge enabler here, but it's ultimately so that I can do whatever I want. Taylor has her stuff covered, but I should let her know just so that her life isn't any more miserable. But then again - she became more powerful whenever shit happened to her or was trapped, so who knows.

So I want freedom - basically I want to not be messed with when I go out, and also be able to be approachable and be seen normally.

Giving away my projections is _way too big_. It's incredibly cool though, but if I did that - guise or not - I'd be kidnapped once they realise I can _something from nothing._

So...? False precog or something? I dunno.

I'll just be the 'Connector' - a civilian, and pretend that the money comes from a mysterious cape called 'Big Bad' or something. Haha.

I cut the cigar and set a dollar on fire using the stove, before using it to light my cigar. Oh, life is good. I'll be an investor also and ensure some good will.

I wonder what kind of outfit I should ask Parian to make. Probably something like Coil's bodysuit, except less intimidating. Hahahaha. Muhahahahaha.

Muhahahahahahaha.

I coughed.

Yeah... Never smoked a cigar before.

 _... Why didn't I just clone diamonds again?_

 _Cloning my glasses gave me more pain than the money, didn't it?_

* * *

Omake:

Someone shifted behind me. I jumped.

"Hello. I'm Contessa," spoke the woman. She wore a black fedora.

"FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUuuuuuu" I yelled, trailing off without moving.

"Are you quite done now?" Contessa replied.

I took a deep breath in. "You could've just done that **_before_** I worked out the money thing."

She shuffled in place, unaware as for how to respond.

"Also your _**path is causing all your actions!**_ "

Her head tilted to one side. "... This is because of the 'money thing'?"

* * *

A/N: Ended up deleting 500 words because it was mostly 'blah blah blah Worm was totally right, Mr Gladly sucks' and such.

Don't worry, I'll find somewhere to use them ;)

Guest - Yeah lol, I'm posting it soon for a trial by fire once I have a good amount to read.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Double chapter. Chapter 5 has the other half.

I know I spent way too long on logistics, so don't worry about lack of actions.

* * *

Worm was totally right. Mr Gladly sucks.

Wait, what was I saying?

Yeah, Mr Gladly.

Mr G was everything as described, really. I really wanted to think that he wasn't a scumbag, and just ordinary guy in a hostile classroom _._ I could see _why_ people would hate him for not stopping bullying, especially those not being helped. And so far, I wasn't being bullied and so I was ignorant of it - sad truth of the matter. Though seeing how he spends the lesson encouraging the popular kids, I could imagine that he actively _creates_ more bullying by enabling it.

Fucking Winslow.

"But _why_ would they require _our_ assistance?" asked Emma in shock.

"Various reasons, more to the point of keeping them from getting too caught up in cape life to defend the regular citizen," Mr G elaborated.

"Do you mean like Endbringers?"

"Yes. More like dealing with irregular things such as villains."

I put back in my earphones

 _WE DON'T GET FOOLED AGAINNNNN_

 _BA BUMMMMMMM BA BA BA BUMMMMMMM_

Seriously fuck this lesson.

Knowing my luck Emma gets the Administrator superpower because she felt so much contempt for Taylor.

Glancing around the class, I could identify the nazis. They were usually talking amongst themselves. Most had eyed me a few times, but they've done nothing crazy so far. I ignored them. I have a feeling why.

I looked down at my phone.

 _Oh thank god, no texts from Sophia._

Sophia talks to me in the hallway. If they don't know her cape personality, then it's because she sets down the status quo. I have no delusions that she is capable of _liking_ someone, but I guess I'm not weak? I don't really want to know what goes on in her fucked up teenagers hindbrain.

Shit. I could actually pretend to be PRT to get Sophia out of here. But then that'd probably do nothing about the gang members anyway. It might even give them more room to maneuver. At some point I'm going to start staring at her and being really needy, so that she'd think I was a loser.

But then I'd be picked on. It's definitely easier to leave.

I glanced around the room. Like I'd concluded when I got here, the girls were still talking amongst themselves. Taylor was the sole tomboy of the class - and that's simply because no other girls talked to her. Groan. And she, of course, was in a coma. It'd been coming up to a week now and I'm not entirely certain what day she'll wake up - if she does - so I checked up on her periodically.

The ABB guy who sat on the seat behind me was the surprisingly cool and normal asian person who I'd met earlier. This is referencing the ABB's presence, which consisted of hostile, tattooed mofos. Originally, I couldn't really tell if he associated with the gang, but twice during the week I saw him talking with the huddled, sketchy-as-hell group of Asians... And it's basically easier to assume that everybody is a bad guy in this city.

Guh though. Honestly - Taylor is a fucking idiot. Why she wouldn't go above and beyond to paint her costume bright pink and the least threatening in a city like this perplexes me. You know, so that it's _impossible_ to think, "This is a bad guy". The decision speaks more like damage caused by the shard than a sane decision.

And now I feel bad about leaving her. Well... Necessary evils I guess.

I took my headphones out. It's coming up to the end of the lesson and Mr Gladly's giving out homework. Then I can come home to my _stacks of money_.

Which reminds me... I still haven't figured out how I'm going to get my cape identity to work with moving my civilian one into Arcadia, or some school that isn't as bad. If I'm going to be Connector, I guess I'll have to do lots of favours and investing. That way it'll make sense for me to help 'a kid in need'.

Hahaha, I could just hand myself large chunks of money in a kind of 'help an orphan kid in need' fashion...

Oh yeah. Shit. I need to get a body double and voice masking and shit. Man, these things never end eh?

The bell for the end of class, and school, rang. It's neat that we have no tutor class in this school. I can just waltz right back out.

I pack my shit up and head out of class. _Well, with enough money I should be able to buy good tinkertech for the voice changer. I'm not sure about having a body double though._

Okay, that fence is looking _awfully necessary_ right now. And first thing on the agenda is hiring _other people_ to buy mint condition money for me to duplicate-

"Hey Chris," spoke a girl's voice.

That name will be the _death of me._ I turn around to see dark brunette girl who wore twin blue clips on either side. Madison.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Nothing much... I was wondering if you wanted to come to my 15th?"

I slouched. "What? No hesitation? Here I thought I was a boytoy."

She rolled her eyes. "If you wanna come, come."

"Sure." Not really. "When is it? Or whereabouts?"

God, spare me the antics of 14 year old girls.

"My house on saturday. _We'll have cake,_ " she mused in a semi-enthusiastic manner.

"Cool. I'll see if I can come by."

"You better. Can't have Sophia's _boyfriend_ missing out."

That was my cue to roll my eyes. "No. _Ha ha, very funny_."

Madison adjusted her hair, "Have you told her that you don't like her?"

"Ehh... It's not that I don't like her. It's more like I don't like her."

Madison laughed. "... I think I know what you're _trying_ to say. You're just failing miserably." She paused, "You're always in a rush, you know that?"

"Oh really? I suppose I am." I paused for a beat, then smirked at her. "What a _shame_. You only ever get to see me leave."

I wonder if they'll get the joke.

She blushed. Right. My banter is done for the day, time to go home to things I actually care about. Freedom and money.

And women much older than me. Also, Ms Militia is actually _pretty hot_. It's a shame we are so far apart in age though.

"Anyway, I do have to go, so I'll talk to you later. No wait- actually. Do you think that Sophia is capable of _liking_ someone?"

She grinned, "Of course. She's not a psycho or anything."

I gave a big grin back at her. She didn't get why. "Anyways, laters."

It's at this point that I am incredibly happy that phones aren't necessary, and that social media doesn't exist. I don't _actually_ have to follow up on this shit.

...

Oh beautiful money.

I look across my apartment at the stacks of $50s and $20s and such, all unevenly grouped so as to maintain the illusion of being unique.

It took about 2 more days until I said 'screw it', and went full on with the money. I did the best I could to be subtle here with constant slow exchanging. I bought - in cash - a mailing box under a name picked from Boston's yellow pages. I'm currently sitting on about $5k.

I walk over to my lockbox, which I put underneath a floorboard in the room. Nothing that would protect from Shadow Stalker - really, woe is Taylor eh? - but it's not like I've written down anything that I know anyway. I open it up and reveal the 9mm I bought with a few cartridges of ammo.

Ahh, the glorious feeling of home protection. I even bought a silencer. I can't fit it on properly though.

I raised it and pointed it at the wall with the safety on.

After a few days of money making I caved and went on Armsbay. Thank you Armsbay, for all my online gun needs. I couldn't have done it legitimately, which would be an extensive background check into the background that I certainly do not have.

Turns out that I didn't even need to find someone with a license to buy it for me. I went on Armsbay, met a reputed dealer and told them I'd be hooded, and went on my way. Pros of living in a martial law society.

I walked to the opposite side of the apartment with the longest gap for me to aim down.

 _An eye, head and neck forms at once. Shoulders form, leading into a torso and stomach. Dust collides with the body. Feet and hands form. No gun forms in the hand of the body._

I aimed carefully. It was like shooting with an eye closed when doing it with the projection.

I couldn't really _fire_ in the apartment, but my aim wasn't 'snapping' to it. It hadn't been getting any more accurate. I could navigate to my projection, but I didn't have an innate sense of _exactly_ where it is, even at this small range.

I let the projection go. Yeah, it really feels like I'm squeezing it when I put it at smaller ranges. That being said though, I still can only get it to go as far as the hospital, give or take.

So, because Worm is filled with a bunch of well-intentioned bad people, I'm going to definitely end up killing someone who ' _had a wife and kids'._ Bonesaw was a _innocent child_ , Marquis was an _upstanding citizen_ , Jack Slash probably _never knew what doing good things was like_. I'll try to not turn them into fictional bad guy archetypes of what they were.

But ultimately I'm protecting myself.

And if someone was mastered into being a bad guy, it's easier to stop them if I don't _know them_ to begin with. I'm not going to masquerade as the human embodiment of karma, and pretend like all the people I'm going to be shooting are 'all bad'. So it just seems _smarter_ to feign ignorance of backstories and deal with people as the situation calls for it. Hence why I'm still talking to Sophia. _I'm not her damn friend though._

It's kind of the _point_ of the franchise it seemed - Coil protects people from Endbringers, even perhaps accidentally. Kaiser with Medhall, what if Sophia was an innocent victim of her passenger, and so on. Killing just seems to be one of two evils, in a world where living is conscription and bullying. _Because I'd definitely shoot Number Man, that fucking GUY._

For _all I know_ the only reason **_he's_** doing good is because otherwise _he'd die_ , as well as all of his _precious numbers._

Ugh. A week of paranoid working out how to avoid thinkers is enough to make anyone go loopy. _Living is pain in Brockton Bay._ But I _am_ going to _capitalise on what I know._ I made to clear up the money and put it into alcoves before calling up some friends to come over.

"Hey, Mike speaking."

"Yo, Mike. Wanna come play play10?"

"... Sure. I'm doing nothing right now." He hung up.

I redialed for Francis.

"... Yeah yeah, hold on. Gotta deal with my sister."

I glanced unenthusiastically at the play10 console I hooked up into my decent TV. Shitty named thing.

As for my power... Well, I've come to the conclusion that maybe my power is meant to be for support? Like handing out objects at long distances. It wouldn't really make sense though, because Entities didn't rely on others. I'm not interested in forming a cape squad either honestly. It could've been used with clone magic, I dunno.

It would be very humorous if I bought an outfit from Parian, only for it to fall off when I dismiss my projection. It would basically say 'free objects', but still. Nude projection.

* * *

"And _how_ could you _possibly_ take down the ABB?" Francis exclaimed while we were playing Wrestle Champ.

"Well, you could start by taking down their gambling dens. Remove their bunkers... Like drug stashes and stuff." Mike replied while we played 2v1. "... ABB is the kind of place where if you tried to kill the leader, another one will take his place."

"Is it because Lung is incompetent?" I asked.

"Pretty much."

I was genuinely considering telling the guys about my cape identity, but I hadn't even gone out yet. I vowed to definitely do it if I get around to having my own hidden base.

"But then Alex would be sad," Francis contributed. Before we cracked up laughing. Alex was the ABB guy we sometimes hanged out with.

"From what I get, ABB really don't give a shit about being covert. At least the E88 put in a _token effort_ to not look like gang members," I added.

I remember avoiding laughing at this in school, as I like my organs. _And I'm_ usually hard pressed to notice this stuff.

"On another note, at least my Panacea and Glory Girl cape fiction is doing well."

Mike groaned. "You pervert."

"Hey. I only wrote it because it would make them uncomfortable." I paused to play the game. "I just took a porn story, then put in their names."

"I liked the back story of her master aura."

"I'm surprised that you read it, frankly."

"It actually reminded me of dumb superpowers. I never got that, like - if you got lightning and it was weak, you can still easily be shot by someone with a _gun_."

Francis added, "Hahaha. I can imagine it now. Someone awakens a weak lightning bolt and they're like 'oh man, I can do _so much with this!'_ They spend like 2 weeks preparing and then zap a gang banger and get shot."

"Speaking of gang bangers... Wanna play Car Thief?"

"Yeah." "Why not."

We continued playing the game for a while, before swapping over to Car Thief X. Don't ask.

"I'll get beer later," I spoke.

"Do you think you could hold a party here?" Francis asked in curiosity.

"Hell no."

"I kind of want to meet Madison."

I replied. "I'll think about it." Hell no.

"So anyway," I started, "That reminded me of an idea. How do capes even register bank accounts?"

They shrugged. "I dunno."

"Hrm." I didn't really want to look too invested. "It'd be weird if they just walked into a bank with a suitcase of money and said, 'take it. I am Ultorb.'"

"Hah. Nah, the PRT probably does it."

"... That kind of sucks though."

"How come?" Mike asked.

I'm a financial cape. "Just does. Imagine going to the police to have to sort out your bank account."

He shrugged, "Better than a bank. Capes are used to the police."

* * *

After the guys left, I revised my sketch for my outfit.

So Parians power _could_ work with mine. My projection breaks after getting hit, but her power was telekinesis. If her fabrics don't move backwards after getting hit, then we could _maybe_ make a full body outfit that she can hold together with TK. We could basically invent a joint cape.

That would also have the benefit of being _very_ very funny. I _also_ remember that Parian and Flechette were apparently a lethal combo, so I can assume that it's from sending small projectiles. Wildbow also said that she had a hidden use for her power that could make her fight _Behemoth_ solo, but I don't know. I can only guess it's something like _telekinesis of peoples' brains_ or something like that, in appropriate Worm fashion.

No... She had a manton effect against living things. I dunno then. Needle into brain with telekinesis. Bam. Almost morbid enough.

Whatever, it's time to get this show on the road. I eyed the circle on the map I bought, labelled 'New Wave'.

Time to really test my range.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for here. I just need to either get my projection to find out her number from a phone book or phone, or to ask a member of the team. I honestly wish I had a better plan, but _Parian doesn't own a shop_.

That was disappointing. I can't really think of a better solution though, so for it I'm pretending to be a guy 'representing' a cape that I met. Maybe I could just meet one member? Like Panacea? Actually, yeah. I'll just look for Panacea. I'm probably going to try and hire her anyway.

Come to think of it, Panacea's starting to become a recurring trend. Let's get this over with.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hi. I'm looking for Panacea. Does she come here often?" I asked. Best place to spend my weekend. The hospital.

"What are you looking for her for?"

"Oh. I need to speak with her. I should specify, it's _nothing_ to do with asking her to do medical stuff."

She gave me a look that she was obviously familiar with. "You do realise that we can't just give access to Panacea to anyone who asks."

"Yeah, it's why I didn't bother offering money or anything... Not that I have any. But still, can the hospital help me get in contact with her even at Arcadia? I don't mind Glory Girl being there."

"What do you need her for?"

"It's private. Though it's not that bad. She has something I have. Or well, took it by accident." I dunno, don't ask me to make up excuses on the fly.

The woman behind the counter flipped her hair. "Hrm. It's best that you go to her yourself."

"Is she in?" I asked.

"I can't answer that. I can leave a message for her though."

"That'll have to do."

Like hell. I activated my projection.

 _A partial eye forms in the corner of a hospital room. It is made from pupil, lens and fovea. A girl speaks in hushed tones with an older male, both with resembling features. She speaks, "Maybe. I'm thinking we could ask th-_

Oh, good. Taylor's up. I'll give it a few weeks before I talk to her. In the meantime I might ask Danny if he knows any fences, and maybe inform Danny about her being a parahuman, in case she doesn't trust my advice. I'll put a pin in that though. Amy.

 _An empty corridor-_

 _A room with a patient, catches the eye-_

 _A hospital room. A woman wearing a full body cloak with a red cross on it. Brown hair and freckles. A man lay in bed resting against the pillow. The woman held a clipboard stating-_

Cool. Also, that outfit is really disturbing. It's like a templar from Assassin's Creed, and I imagine that it might get blood over it.

I noticed that over the week I should just use the eye very quickly. That way if people spot it they will think that they're just seeing things. Dark blue is also not bad for that. Albeit reflective.

"... I'll come back to deliver the message," I replied. I walked over to somewhere else for a minute before examining the hospital map and making my way to Panacea.

...

"Fuck getting my way around a hospital. This is a nightmare," I muttered. I was finally at where Amy Dallon was. She was sitting beside a water cooler sipping a coffee and enjoying _\- if that's a word you can use for Panacea -_ her break.

This was kind of uncomfortable, as I really, really didn't want to be seen interacting with any capes. I was going to play this civilian _through and through_. But tough times call for this, since I didn't want to get people _very_ uncomfortable if I just showed up as a random cape in a few months with no sort of warning.

I waved to get her attention and walked a bit slower toward her, like I was approaching a _wounded animal_.

"Hi there."

She looked around wearily, "Hello?"

I cleared my throat. "Sorry about that. Right, so nice to meet you," I waved again.

"Hi," she replied breezily.

"My name is Chris and I want to talk about something - actually, can we take this somewhere private?" I quickly added, "This has nothing to do with medical stuff."

She stared at me through her half lidded expression. "I don't understand. Why?"

"Well," I shuffled a bit closer and whispered, "I have superpowers. So can we talk in private."

Her eyes widened, "What? Why would you need me for?"

"Poor grammar. Anyway, no - it's nothing _big_. I just needed to ask for Parian's number so I can get a costume. Can we take this in private now?"

"Okay. Sorry," she replied and quickly shuffled along.

"Sorry for interrupting your break." I was kind of going to be bending over backwards. It's fortunate that Panacea is a loner, and I didn't see anything when I looked with my projection anyway.

We'd arrived in a small empty hospital room.

"So what is this for again?"

"Well. I weighed up my options and I need a costume, but I can't find Parian's number online. I figured that people trust you with their identity, so I might as well ask you instead."

She seemed pretty underwhelmed, "Oh, well, let me get my phone."

"Oh by the way, I have no way of saying this that isn't dramatic, so I'll tell you. I know a lot about you. I suppose it's _kind of_ linked to my powers?"

She stopped her reaching for her phone. "... Why?"

"The explanation is a little convoluted, but I don't blame you if you feel entitled to an explanation. Nothing personal as for how I know." Hm. Come to think of it I'm only _fairly sure_ that nobody has bugged the hospital rooms.

"Right. I'm don't think you'll blame me if I say that I don't trust you." She's just a stranger, of course she will be reticent to me.

"Well, is it okay if I whisper to you?" I paused, " _I'm not a master,_ but I _am_ pretty paranoid that people bug hospital rooms. It wouldn't really surprise me, since they could just look out for new triggers."

"I'm not really comfortable with that," she replied.

"Fine. Okay." I positioned myself to face her more. "So, for all intents and purposes... I am a precog and I know everything about a lot of capes. It's not really the truth - I actually have a different power, but it'll do. As for capes, I'm also _not even slightly interested_ in them." I paused, "In fact, I want to make my own base - mostly just money and weapons. And some friends and _maybe_ a cape." _Powers and how they're used are interesting though._

She gave me a confused look, "I don't really understand what you're trying to say."

I went back over what I said. "Oh. I mean that I know that a lot of bad stuff is going to happen in Brockton Bay. I don't really have a good way to phrase it, so I'm basically just trying making a place where I'm not _in danger_."

She looked intrigued and leaned forward toward me, "What's causing the danger?"

"Numerous things. Wait - do you want to touch my hand? I know that you can detect lies by looking at brains."

Amy recoiled in what looked like horror as her lips parted and her eyes widened.

"Sorry." I winced and tried again, "It's kind of hard to know exactly what's appropriate when I basically only remember the main things that happen around you." I elaborated, "I'm not going to tell anyone, and I'm doing my best to avoid ever having to."

Amy scowled. "It's... _Alright._ Or, it's _not_. But go on."

I raised my hand. "Can you please check me for telling the truth? It'll make this easier."

She hesitated before she clasped on. Good.

She paused and looked at me with shock. "You have no Corona Pollentia!"

I frowned. "... Should I just demonstrate my superpower then? It's not dangerous."

"Yes. Do so."

I made a projection in the corner of the room.

 _A pair of eyes, head and face forms. A neck and shoulders form into a torso. Dust collides with the projection._

I didn't continue making it. I turned and pointed while Panacea held my hand.

"... Interesting. I'm not seeing any use of your brain," she remarked.

"Well, I can control it. So if you are interested, you can let me know."

"No, no. I can believe you," she said while squinting at the floating shape.

I dispelled the projection.

"Okay, good." I continued, "So I have superpowers. I don't really have a good way to phrase it, but I know the worst things that surround you. Now, horrible stuff happens in the future to you, and I'm going to try and prevent that by telling you what happens. Are you sure you want to hear it?"

She looked at me for a while. "... Sure. As long as it doesn't have anything with Vicky or something."

I took a painful expression. "It kind of does."

She sat in silence.

I sat and waited with her, and then after a few minutes I continued, "I'll be honest. I just want to give you the information and get on with what I'm doing. It's your life."

Amy's freckled face took on a hard, resigned expression, and her posture became more tense through her clothes.

"I'll try not to age you several years in an hour. In short... And most _bluntly_ , your family causes you to flip out and splits you apart from your sister."

Amy Dallon stared at me incredulously. "And you _seriously_ think this is true?"

"I find it more telling that you didn't refute it," I stated bluntly. "Sorry, honestly," I added as a belated apology.

She scowled at me and ground out, "I don't know who you are. Why are you even telling me this?"

I sighed and de-escalated as best I could by taking a long pause. "... Your situation is much worse than you think it is." I paused, "In a couple of months your family will want you to use your power on a relative's brain, and you won't do it because you don't care about them."

"Am I _supposed to believe you_?" She asked in a deliberately normal tone.

I raised my hand to remind her. "Well, it's the truth. It's unpleasant, but it's better that you hear it and avoid it than otherwise. Unless you'd prefer me to say it in exact terms."

She replied with aggressive bravado. "I would _appreciate_ that."

And at this point I was doubting that she'd begin to believe anything but the truth. I paused, "So. The long story short is that Mark - I think that was your step-father's name - gets hurt in an upcoming event. And it is _definitely_ upcoming."

I was considering going back to the water cooler for a drink at this point, ironically. _Leviathan joke._

"He gets _fixable_ brain damage. And in that situation, your family know that you can heal it, but because of years of distance and lack of parenting you decide not to."

Panacea looked angry, but not irrational. "And this happens why?"

"Do you mean the part where it's arbitrarily just outside of your rules, or the part where you decide not to?"

"The _deciding not to,_ " she replied apathetically.

"Shame. Powers themselves cause conflict and they probably plan events like that." I continued, "Anyway, it's accumulative stress. I'll elaborate - the event was Leviathan showing up. You spend _days_ healing people, and although your mum and Vicky want you to do it, you don't want to."

"And does he die?"

"I'm honestly not sure, but I think so."

"That's just arbitrary," again, deliberate apathy.

I glanced back down at my hand. Yeah, of course it is. Are you seriously still disbelieving me?

I sighed. "Panacea. I'm telling you truth."

"I know," she replied flippantly. She sighed and returned her voice to normal, "Sorry. I know. It just seems so unrealistic. I've never even been to an Endbringer event."

Huh. Canberra hasn't happened yet, has it?

I looked at her. "That's what happens. I'm not going to continue if you don't believe me."

She took a second to think, "I believe you. I just can't imagine it."

"It's probably because you're so stressed out." Sheeesh. I continued loosely, "A lot of the problems are because of the stress that your family put you under."

Panacea looked at me more intently. "You keep telling me that my family are responsible. But I don't really get how."

Might as well say it. "Vicky's aura still affects you."

Panacea gave me an incredulous look, "Duh."

Huh. "I _mean_ that your family, from what I'm aware - considering my power - are only not at each others throats because of Vicky's aura."

She growled at me and disconnect her hand, "And who are you to tell me that? To take the higher ground."

This is exactly why I didn't want to do this. Not worth it. _No superpowers are worth trying to have a conversation with people whose idea of happiness is 'not being in pain'._

I put my head in my palm. "Amy. Please calm down. I understand that your family might be all you've got, I'm just trying to help you make some friends in a less unhealthy way."

She was furious, "You come in here, slandering Vicky and telling me that my family doesn't like me. You _asshole_."

I avoided going to get that cup of water. I sat and rested my chin on my palms. Let her air this out.

"Insulting her like she's intentionally manipulating the family or something. Even telling me that my dad is going to die - or be _'brain damaged'_. _Nice one._ "

I didn't interrupt. Once she'd simmered down slightly, Panacea asked, "Do you have anything else to tell me?"

I sat and waited. Well... It kind of was 50-50. Either I hand her all the info and let her choose to sacrifice herself, or not. I don't really owe Amy anything.

"Calm down first." I took an extended pause, "Do you think that I'm tricking your brain readings?"

"Well honestly I doubt that but you couldn't have."

Poor grammar. "Okay. Yeah, I am not doing anything to interact with that. I am telling you the truth as I know it." I sighed, "I'm just a guy. I also know that your powers are lethal. So do I have any reason to lie here?" I caught her eye.

"No," she admitted.

"Then good. Please _don't shoot the messenger._ "

"The message is shit," she replied frankly.

I stated the obvious, "I'll avoid talking about Vicky.-Though I'll see if I can ease your conscience. Firstly - I know that you like her and I don't care. Not my business. I'll fund the wedding if you want though." Don't give me a disease or something.

"Secondly - your personal rules will cause bad stuff to happen. Yes, you can check with my hand if you want. They make sense, and they prevent bad things from happening, but if push goes to shove, _I_ would personally rather see your rules break before _you do_. Nobody wants to see _S-rank Panacea_."

"Is that all?" Amy replied tersely.

"Amy. I don't know you, but the knowledge which I do know," I paused, "is that your family have animosity towards you because your real dad, who was a villain, caused them to trigger. They take that out on you by not treating you the same as your sister. The aura makes it worse."

"That... actually makes sense," she replied reluctantly.

"Good. I'm glad I'm getting somewhere. You are an incredibly strong person for dealing with a family that has animosity towards you. Mad respect." What else, "So I'm recommending that you have somewhere _else_ to go if you want to get away from them."

"I'm flattered," she replied flatly.

"The knowledge that I have is that your rules are completely self sacrificing, and your love for Vicky is selfish. True?"

She took a reluctant expression before she conceded. "... Yes."

"Then you need to change those rules or else you're going to explode."

"Oh." _oh good, something is absorbing into the dry sponge that is Panacea._

"Oh by the way, I also wrote a cape story for you, about a week ago." And that'll have to do, because I'm sure as shit not going to tell you that Vicky is mastering you any more directly here. The story is _basically_ that. And because it's porn Amy decides that she _likes her_ despite the mind control _._ Maybe she'll see what she's like in 3rd person? I dunno. I chose to grin ominously when I wrote down and handed her the link.

"Great. Do I even have to ask."

"It was fairly popular."

A brief lapse of silence happened as Amy smoothed out her apparently now-crumpled Templar outfit.

"... Who _was_ my dad?"

"Marquis." Mr blunt over here. Well, we're probably not going to talk again anyway. "Your birth name is Amelia Claire Lavere."

She stared at me as she processed the information.

Once a sufficient period of time had happened I elaborated. "Bone manipulation, then complete biological manipulation."

"I... see." She let go of my hand and moved herself to sit on the hospital cot. Well, at least that'll _finally_ stop any sort of doubts as to Brandish's attitude.

We sat for a minute. "Amy." I asked. "Amy. I've spent the time I was here making sure that you _were_ the person I knew about," I lied. I'm doing this whole thing out of pity, but whatever. "And if you're thinking about you being a bad person, then you're wrong. You are a much greater hero than your family by _recognising what is wrong and not doing it._ " I paused and said much slower, " _Some_ people go too far when they fight, and without others there to clean up the evidence, they are called villains."

"You do not do that _._ You are the _epitome of restraint_ and _I_ am jealous of your strength of character. _Most heroes out here in the bay make concessions_..."

I could tell that she was listening, so I took a much longer pause.

"One of the people I _want_ to help got their powers from being tortured by a Ward, and it's still happening. The PRT would jail anyone who breaks the unwritten rules and exposes the Ward, so it's still happening.

"... That's... horrible."

I grinned at her. "They have _about_ the same strength as you do. I'm going to talk to them later."

Once more we sat in silence. I was feeling kind of restless and wanted something to do.

I glanced around the room. "It's kind of stuffy. Do you want to catch some fresh air?"

"... Sure." Amy replied a bit morosely.

A thought occured to me. "Oh yeah, shit. I'll need to make up an excuse." Otherwise it'd be _'Panacea and random civilian boy, here's his identity'_ on the news.

She knew what I was referring to. "Ok. You're a patient I'm working on."

"Nah... Find somewhere quiet for us to shoot the breeze and I'll be back in a few mins." Oh wait. "But first, hand me your phone so I can actually wear a costume please."

She stared at me before complying. Huh, I was expecting her to sit on her phone and maybe read it off.

"Also, I'm Chris. I'm gonna put my apartment's number under 'CA random'. I haven't got a mobile yet." Hrm... What am I missing. Oh, right. No contacts book.

I scribbled Parian's number on piece of hospital paper.

...

"Great. What a way to spend my break," she remarked dryly as I got back.

"I know right. I didn't want to spend my saturday down at the hospital. In any case, pretend like I was talking about... birthdays or something." Damnit Amy, _make some friends._

We sat on a park bench on a forgotten side of the hospital. I came back with 2 cigars and a few boxes of cigarettes and lighters. And here anybody will sell this to a teen if you pay them. There aren't even any electronic cashouts.

Amy groaned and replied, "What's in the bag?"

"I went to buy a couple cigars. They're cheap this season, according to the shop I buy them at. Do you smoke?" She hummed and looked inside the bag.

"No," she replied plainly.

 _Take it up_. I took them out and opened them.

"... _So_ how do you know?" She asked, as I handed a cigarette to her out of the box.

"What do you mean? Oh, right."

She fiddled with it, and I lit our chosen bundles of tobacco. I took a minute to think it over.

"Ah. I have a solution." I rested my other hand on her arm. "The explanation is really convoluted. I'll explain, but at the moment it would just make you question it. The future info is true from everything I gather though."

"And this whole shtick about having a base?" She asked while timidly puffing on the cigarette.

There. An addiction to take your mind off of your _other_ addiction. I'm a genius.

I puffed my cigar. "I have money. I'll _maybe_ consider employing you, but for now you can use my base just to get away... from your toxic family. Well, my apartment. Under disguise."

She played with the cigarette, "... They don't hate me." Well talk about damning with faint praise.

I took in the scenery. I suppose I'll just drop asking her about the base then.

She glanced wearily at me, "... So your power is that blue projection thing?"

"Yup." I glanced around and checked that the area is clear with my eye. "... I can make stuff from nothing."

She processed that for all of a few seconds and then gaped at me.

I took a second to reply. "It's incredibly limited though. Actually, you should be damn proud I'm telling you. I'm telling you because I trust you and because you're powerful enough that nobody can touch you."

"I feel flattered," she replied flatly again.

She retired to smoking her cigarette. "Right then... I won't ask any more," she added.

We each sat in silence on our own to process our own thoughts. I was mentally playing Sudoku to be honest.

I sat up. "Right. Well, I should go before your sister shows up. Pretend that someone at the hospital was smoking or something."

"Do you want to meet her?" Panacea asked.

"Glory Girl? Fuck no. Do I look like I want to be hit with her aura?" I pointedly ignored her reaction.

I took the cigars out of the bag and left the rest with her. "Anyway, I don't want to be known by capes, so I'll be heading off."

If there's anything this interaction has taught me its that I really would rather avoid capes, frankly.

"Good luck with the outfit," she replied distantly.

"You too, Mrs. _Plague Doctor,_ " I responded, dryly.

* * *

A/N:

Re-edit. I gave the impression that the protagonist - who was doing callous monologuing - made Panacea amicable to him because she wasn't disagreeing. Hrm... I was trying to make her stoic. More conflict! Now Amy had had a bad day at home! :U


	6. Chapter 6

"Hi. This is Parian speaking," she answered.

I twiddled with the phone wire. "Hi. Is it possible to purchase your services for making costumes?"

She took a pause that was slightly too long, "... It depends. _How much are you willing to spend on one?_ " she asked. Her voice moved a bit away from the receiver.

"About 20 grand. By the way, is it actually safe to be calling this phone from home?"

"What do you mean?"

"As in if this is a trackable call."

She paused. "... No... I don't _think_ so. _I've given a few capes costumes_." She paused, "By the way, that's _not as much as you may think for making a costume_."

 _Great. More reasons to hire someone to help with duping. Just what I need..._

" _Hrm._ Okay. But it's enough?"

"I think it should work."

"Great. Do you have a place that we can meet?"

Parian ended up directing me down a long set of instructions for how to get in contact with her. Fortunately she had no 'jump in my black car'-type stuff though. It struck me as odd, having read so many fanfictions where she employed non-cape bodyguards.

Nevertheless, I put on a baseball cap and a jacket with a hood and made my way out.

...

At least she knows not to enter Empire 88 territory. I'm pretty sure she is an idiot though. Because otherwise holy shit, you're squandering $20k by making me walk through what looks like Merchant territory. Or just some sketchy looking bums.

I flicked the Smith and Wesson pistol in my pocket before coming to rest at the location.

I heard thudding for about 6 or so seconds before Parian and a giant gorilla _toy_ appeared in view from around a corner.

"Woah," I replied, mildly intimidated. Not unreasonable though - I was a cape.

I wonder if my skill isn't geared towards combat then - if I haven't got a Corona Pollentia. Plus... I wonder if Jack Slash would mess with self inserts that have access to Doormaker. If his shard steers him away from potential danger - but either way I haven't got a shard so it might be okay.

Parian spoke up, "... Are you the guy?" She was standing behind the gorilla, and I couldn't discern her ethnicity from her voice.

I wonder if she grew up in the US.

"That is most certainly me," I replied, and used each of my hands to hold my cap and hood back to expose my face to her. I pushed them back to where they were and slipped my hands back to my pockets.

" _Good,_ I guess _,_ " she said with a little inflection. The felt - I think was the material - gorilla hadn't moved. I exhaled in relief.

"Is it okay if we get going already? The murderhobos were suspicious-looking enough." I was feeling pretty disconcerted with the night so far.

She looked at me through her porcelain mask. I guess she was assessing me. "... That is understandable, fair point. Sorry."

I took my hands out of my pockets and gestured, "Lead the way."

We walked and I trailed after the gorilla, which separated the two of us. I was hoping that my tanned face and lack of obvious _druggie_ behaviours might score some points here. Though it is a _world of capes._ Uber and Leet should make that into a videogame.

It turned out that we didn't have to walk far. She escorted me to an empty factory facility and gestured for me to lead the way in. I followed the instruction.

I spoke up, "So in honesty, I'm hoping that you're not just going to rob for the money. I only have a down-payments worth right now for that reason."

"No - I - that's okay. I _wanted to understand what you want to get_ ," she replied in a more _brusque_ voice.

I moved my head to the side while I walked, which she might see. "... Do you do this often? Outfits for capes."

"Not _really_. But I really like doing it, so it's nice to have the opportunity for someone." Nice. She's somewhat like what I imagined from the fan fictions. That's a relief.

"That's good to hear. Speaking of, I really like suits... Though they wouldn't really suit me right now, being a teen and all."

She paused. "Suits can look good on anyone. I doubt that, I think." She seemed to be looking for the right wording, "It's in the name."

We entered an office, which had... Pretty good ambient lighting, and wooden tables. It looked more like a craftsman's workshop. I was kind of anticipating some sort of clinical office because... Capes.

"Nice office," I commented, looking around. It had a good ambiance, being surrounded by small dolls - ones I imagined that she might not really fight with.

"Thank you," she replied curtly, "I use it when I'm dealing with people. It's easier to _talk_ , than most places I usually meet them at."

"I can see why." I gestured outwardly, "I kind of just want to bring a bottle of wine and sit and enjoy the night - assuming this room had a window."

"Ha. I'm not sure," she replied with a bit less paced language. "Wait until you are my age. It's not the kind of thing that you want to do."

I grinned.

She moved the _giant gorilla_ into the corner and brought a significantly smaller human doll to stand in the room. _Good.  
_

She seemed a little bit less apprehensive, and adjusted her mask and made herself comfortable. "S-So what do you have in mind?"

She'd stuttered a little when settling into a more casual voice, which made me think that she had a sort of 'formal front' - if it wasn't easy for her to transition to that. I didn't want to be _stonewalled_ , so I responded more directly and casually.

I made myself comfortable and took off my hat and hood. "Well... I kind of have a couple different powers, and I want to be a civilian for the most part." I paused a beat, "It's a little confusing."

She looked at me blankly, so I elaborated. "My power is projections."

I quickly formed one on the further edge of the room in her line of sight.

 _An eye emerges, leading into a face and then torso. Dust interacts with the body. Corrugated metal walls, a female, the Owner, and animated fabric structures stand amongst the wooden tables._

I gestured with my hand towards its blue form. "Can you make it out? It's a little dim in here."

Parian shuffled spoke up, "... I-I can see it. What do you mean by 'I want to be a civilian' though?"

"Ah..." I realised what I slipped. Shoot - _ah well_ , "Boy, that is one leap of faith you're asking me to do."

The doll-resembling girl began, "... If you don't _want to_...?"

That was more of a relief. I smiled a little, "No, it's fine. Why not. You'll need to know anyway. Watch."

I dug my hand in my pocket and took out a bundle of cash that I had tied together with an elastic band. I cancelled the projection and reformed it with the money.

 _A body and torso emerges. Dust interacts with the body._ _Arms emerge from the structure._ _32 pieces of linen, silk and cotton emerge with an elastic band. The body begins to throw the bundle forwards._

I dispersed the projection as it left it's hand. I had actually done some testing, and it couldn't really throw or disconnect anything very far from its body. I looked towards Parian for a silent agreement before stepping over to pick up the money.

I walked back up towards her and held it up, shaking it. "See?"

Parian stared at me for a good few seconds before snapping to herself. "T-That's real?" She spoke more informally.

 _Finally_ , a less _'I am a cape'_ voice.

"You bet! Though there's still things I have to deal with. It's probably best that I burn the one I'm carrying."

"Why would you need to do that?" She asked.

I gave her an exasperated smile and reeled off the explanation, "Okay, well people look for large amounts of duplicated serial numbers to track money. If you're subtle, and you only put it where money changes hands often, then trackers won't know. Less duplicates the better." I simplified it, "If you have too many then they can follow the path of copied money."

Will Number Man find it? I kinda doubt it. It should have a _lack_ of numerical evidence, because you don't know how many copies there are.

"... I think I understand. Will that make it harder to pay?"

"No. I'll just pay you in gold or diamonds or whatever you want." I paused, "I'm trusting you with a lot here, but I think it should be okay."

I could imagine her eyebrows raising. "I-I think I can _see that_. Why?" She glanced around the room, "Why don't you just use gold?"

I decided to pick up the second question first, "I think it's easier to find someone who keeps giving out gold and diamonds. I don't have a fence either."

She seemed mollified, I couldn't tell much with the mask being there though. "Oh, okay. I have a fence."

"Fantastic! Here I was wondering if I should ask _a dad that I know_..."

I paused to see if she'd pick up the conversation.

I used the moment to quickly examine more of the piles of felt and other fabrics here. It was a surprisingly large amount, which was making me think that this might be a heavily used location.

"I think having more fences is usually good. But I still don't understand, why would you want to be a civilian?" She asked, and seemed curious. "In my experiences being a cape has a few more benefits."

She took a pause and continued, "I-I want to be known as a designer, and it also gets people knowing that I'm not a villain or anything."

I pushed my finger to my chin, "I don't want to show people my power. I know a lot about the future _."_ I straightened my posture and looked at her, "To avoid being discovered, I want to make a fake cape, and give him a made-up boss who funds him. Things to avoid detection."

She paused and took the same staring look. "... Nevermind that, you're a precog!?" She 'ticced' with her mouth, "God, _what's wrong with you?"_ she asked in what was _thankfully not a serious tone_. I thought I could hear some Middle Eastern accent.

I relaxed a little and grinned cheekily. "I know - I'm practically _Eidolon_."

Parian hasn't done anything, and she hasn't struck me as that kind of person at all. She seems more fixed on fashion and how she would get things to work with that.

I started, "So - to elaborate, the cape can be my projection. It could be me, but I'm also not going to make it do anything _superpowered_."

I adjusted where I was leaning on the table, "Because... of my 'precognition', I know that _a lot of shit_ is going to go down. You might even be _personally_ dragged into it _,_ sorry _._ I'm using my cape ID to create a place somewhere that's not in danger... And also to make use of the info I know."

Parian was stunned, and she didn't respond for several seconds.

"I... see... I-I think." Parian raised her hand, "But you can't just tell me that and not expect me to _want to know_."

I looked around the room for a moment and shrugged. "Well, I'm not entirely sure what I _should_ say," I paused, "though you get a girlfriend," adding a belated smile.

She took a surprised posture, "Do not blame me if I don't see these things being true. What kind of things happen?"

I rolled my shoulders, "Well, I could just dump information. It's probably easier. I know basically _everyone_ in Brockton Bay's identities. And then some." I paused and quickly continued, "But I'd rather not..."

I activated my power, "I kind of want to take this somewhere more private, but I'm not seeing anything nearby with my projections." What to tell her? "Well... For a start, the PRT is corrupt."

She gasped, "Wait-What do you mean?" She elaborated, "A-Armsmaster is not corrupt. He's helped me in the past, and kicked out gangsters when I tried to sell my handmade carpets."

Huh. "I need to elaborate... There are a _few_ things which are bad that are going on." I sighed, "Well, a lot of things are going to hit Brockton Bay. That the PRT is corrupt actually _probably_ won't be an issue for you, because they don't consider you strong enough to want to force you to work for them." Astounding PR departments be damned.

"I don't understand," She sighed, "But yes, that is true. There were a few times where the Empire has overlooked me simply because they don't consider me as _worth it_."

 _Although_... _I have it on good source that you are capable of fighting Behemoth one on one._ "Brockton Bay may be entering martial law - or a feudal state in a few years. More gangsters may move in."

Parian panicked, "But what!? Why w-would they need to do that? Are you sure of this?" Her hackles kept being raised, so I did my best to interrupt it.

"-I _can_ explain. Although this is a _big_ secret. So I need you to keep it quiet."

I didn't see much of a response from her, as her porcelain mask stared off towards the side of the workshop.

After a few seconds, Parian turned to look at me with some exasperation in her voice, "B-But I don't have any proof of _what you're saying_."

Oh! _Durr_. "I'll explain... Coil is causing a lot of the police corruption. Actually, ignore that I said that. It probably won't help you. Ah!" I raised a my index finger, "Let's see.. _The Simurgh attacked already_... Ah! An ABB member will attack the city. You'll know when it happens."

"WHAT!?" Parian reeled back in shock.

"-Or I could've told you about the Undersiders hitting the ABB casino," I grumbled to myself.

"That's - That's awful!" Parian was aghast, and paced herself around several tables covered in piles of fabric. "We need to do something to warn people."

I sighed and put my face in my palm. "Look. There is a large sequence of events that keep escalating, that may cause horrible repercussions."

I stared at Parian, "Like, let's take the Simurgh. For all I know, what action I do would change her behaviour so that something else will happens somewhere. I don't like writing off Canberra, but because of how _conflict oriented_ it all is, getting a visit now is certainly better than getting a _surprise_ visit later."

Prior to coming, I'd decided that if Parian was a pretty normal person, like what I imagined, then I'd tell her _everything_.

But now that I'm here... It kind of struck me that, looking around this _heavily used fabrics workshop_ , that the scale of things in Worm is probably completely unrelatable to her.

But now if I _don't_ she might think that it's better for her to leave Brockton Bay ASAP.

As it stands, it's like some sort of particularly bad weather forecast. And she probably spends her daily routine worrying about other capes and what to do with fabrics. It'll suck but I think should dump the 'by the way, everything will end in the future' on her.

It's a good thing I arrived too late for Canberra. I really don't want to add that to my plate - I don't have a messiah complex big enough.

* * *

We looked at a sketch of a few ideas I had. Mainly of a businessman-looking character with blue skin.

She stared at the drawing and tapped the table, "Your projection is blue and shiny. I'm pretty sure that even if it was in this outfit, they would be able to tell."

"Oh shit, yeah." I raised my hand to my chin, "Full body outfit then."

"I could make one. I'm not sure how I could hide your general figure, and it might not work with the copying thing..."

"That would actually work pretty well. That's the first working idea we have." I jotted it down on paper. "I want my cape identity to be perceived as a civilian. No demonstrations of power. I don't really want people to find out about my projection ability. I kind of want to do it _as_ a projection though for safety reasons."

Parian nodded, "That... makes sense."

"The only problem at the moment is getting it to work." I paused, "The projection is physical, but it's weak and bursts really easily. If it did, and I reappeared, then they would realise that the clothes are carbon copies. Like a kidnap-able Oni Lee."

She tilted her head, "What about armour?"

I winced. "I _kind of_ have a hard limit for how much I can clone, and my best theory is that it's about how dense or complicated it is."

I copied a phone, and that was fairly challenging. It might get easier, though.

"Long story short is that it's incredibly weak, and for things that are _theoretically_ simple - like pure carbon - it's difficult. But for a pair of glasses or something you might find _daily_ , it's easy. For a full set of armour..." I replied, gesturing 'and so on' with my hand, "Hopefully you get my point."

She nodded.

"I don't know about tinker tech though, which kind of leads me to this," I pointed at one of the bullet points for 'tinkertech voice box'. It was put between 'impossible to burst' and 'capable of speech'. "I don't know how I'll get a voice box that is simple enough to duplicate. I could just buy a ton from Toybox... I'd need some way to do it covertly though."

Parian glanced back up at me, "I've never done it."

Damn... I'll see what I can do. Maybe I'll just negotiate with Toybox with messages on paper.

"I'll be honest... it's powerless and weak as hell. I haven't found much purpose for it. But it would be handy to _have_." I paused. "I would rather have the option."

She moved herself a bit more parallel to me and sat in silence. She replied, a little bit more thoughtful, "You could maybe use your projection to push money at people and set it on fire. Like if you had some sort of air pipe."

"Would you believe me if I said I'd thought of that? Only problem is that they'd see that I something-from-nothing and _it's not really a good power, is it?_ "

"Ha." She procured a pen from her pocket.

I quickly moved on, "I haven't tested adding lungs and such to talk. There wasn't a lot of point - it'd have the same voice as me."

Holy hell though, that money fire thing might not be bad against Taylor though now that she's said that. I didn't even realise that. Though cockroaches can survive forest fires...

* * *

"T-There's something I'm missing..." She kept tapping her pen, "Armsmaster told me that the police have ways to tell if someone has powers... Ah!" She clicked her fingers, "If you know what the Simurgh is going to do, does the Simurgh know you know?"

"I don't get what you mean... I mean I _do._ " How to explain... Eh, _sure_. "Contessa - the best precog in the world - should have come to get me once I 'learned it'. It didn't occur to me, but nothing has happened. So I don't know."

"I-I mean their thinker department," Parian replied.

I shrugged. "I should also elaborate by the way - I know a timeline where I don't do anything."

Parian elaborated, "But what I mean is that if the Simurgh can't tell that you know, isn't that **_suspicious_**!?"

"... Shit."

My civilian ID might be in danger. Would Tattletale notice something?

I paused, "That's... A really good point. I really have no way to tell. I mean... I have a _cover story_..."

I raised my hand, "Give me a second."

Um... I _could_ physically hide my civilian identity?

"... Yeah, I got nothing." I took a deep breath in and smirked, "Well. It would've _always been the case anyway_. I'll tell you about something very funny that I had planned though, which I'll still try to do."

I paused, "I made a back story, which said that my family was killed by Leviathan in Newfoundland in 2005 - it was _that_ or 'gang bangers did it' so I could convince someone to let me buy a gun."

I continued, " _So_ I wanted to make my cape ID hand out money to 'orphans and troubled children', and make my civilian ID become rich. I'll still make it work, even if I have 'thinker immunity'."

Parian took a second before she burst out in giggles, "Of course. _That's not a bad plan,_ " she replied _._

I noticed that a few of the cloth dolls left a while ago, maybe being used for patrolling or whatever.

I grinned and took a Montgomery Burns-type pose, " _Excellent._ _"_ And because her mood is up, "I _did_ have an idea for the superhero that might work that involves you."

She readjusted her mask.

"I know about everyone's powers. From what I remember, your ability is telekinesis for any porous materials. Or at least really good at things that are light and filled with holes or space for oxygen."

She took an aghast posture, "Wha-You know!?" I nodded.

She slowly, and more carefully continued, "I thought it was just for cloth. But no, it's not that porous - I've tried for sponges and it doesn't work."

"It seems like your telekinesis is weak... But all powers have a combat-oriented intention." I hummed. "You can affect the flexible kinds of materials - so it wouldn't be about force. Maybe something to do with how hard... _Necromancy maybe?_ " I mumbled, I really have no damn clue how she could possibly fight Behemoth. But it's going to be something negative.

"... You know what? I have no idea."

"It's disconcerting that you know so much about my power," she mumbled. She spoke up more directly, "Wait - I heard _that_ \- that's horrible!"

" _Sorry_. So my idea was if your creations don't bend, what do you think of holding an outfit together with telekinesis? If it can take a hit, and still move, it can work with my projection. I also have decent distance with it." How did Doormaker and Clairvoyant get that to work anyway?

"And hopefully then you can disintegrate the fabric after it breaks. I haven't tested talking though."

Parian looked more and more uneasy. "I- I - I'm not sure that I'm a hero. I don't really want to be attached to a new cape and anger the gangs or PRT. And - if what you say is true - then the PRT would be more 'interested' in me."

"I'm not a hero either. I just want to make a base that is safe to stay. And once shit starts to hit Brockton Bay, I'll _and you_ can have somewhere to be safe, okay?" I gave her a smile and replied blithely, "I mean, it's not exactly a risk being a _projection with telekinesis powers_ , eh?"

Parian took a few seconds in silence. She looked at me, "I'll think about it," she responded in a little more of a reassuring tone.

"Great. In the meantime I'd rather tell you info and provide money - as long as we're smart about it. I've got no allies." I paused, "And besides, I might _even_ be able to provide you with more fabrics."

"That... would be nice," I mentally pictured her eyes being glazed, though I couldn't tell.

I paused. "I'll explain about the future and things to do. Is there anything you're interested in?"

"What about my girlfriend?" Aha. She looked like she was trying to look disinterested.

I grinned at her. "Of course." I paused, "Yeah, I'm going to see if I can get her here. The reason why she is notable... Actually, I won't tell you. I'd rather that you guys got to meet each other first."

Security made it seem like true love existed, or whatever. I'll try to make it a bit more informal.

In any case, I'm not going to tell her about the logistical benefit of them together and set it off on bad foot.

I glanced at her. "Hey! Don't give me that look. I'm trying to prevent you knowing a lot about her. Do you want to be disappointed in what she's like?"

"Okay. _I can get your point._ " Awesome.

We went silent for a few minutes. I let her think about her options and what to do while I idly looked around.

"... You were saying that you know our identities?"

Oh, right. "Yes. Sorry, I couldn't really avoid that."

Parian slumped and took a minute to collect herself. "Alright."

"If it's any consolation," I took off my hoodie and waved. "Let me introduce myself - a little late. My name is Chris Allen."

She straightened herself up and raised a hand to her mask "Hold on," she replied while taking off her mask.

She waved. "I-I'm Sabah."

She looked attractive, in a kind of shy Middle Eastern girl way. Less tense than the other girl capes.

Girl capes seemed to be a recurring thing here.

I grinned back at her. "Nice to meet you." I replied.

I shook her hand really quickly. "Ah!" she yelled in surprise.


	7. Chapter 7

I took a look around the apartment. It was ordinary, honestly. It was unexpectedly well kept, apart from a few piles of fabric left on the table. She had a laptop on the table, a nice little kitchen area and a sofa with television. There were teddy bear adornments around the room. Not bad for what I assumed was a hermit.

I also saw a few framed pictures of what I could guess was her and her family, including an washed out one of someone who looked like her dad, but I pretended to ignore them.

"This-This is my humble abode," she spoke.

Hearing her voice clearly was very pleasant compared to the muffle behind her mask.

It seemed that her confidence had plummeted while we were walked to her apartment. It's understandable - I _am_ a complete stranger. It spoke volumes for how lonely she is that she allowed me to come.

So far I've been going far out of my way to show that I'm no sort of threat to her.

As for how we got here, I'd basically teased her with future information until we got to the point where she sighed, gave up and told me to come along. Points are self awarded for skills in attrition.

"Sorry for intruding," I said, as I took off my hat and hoodie slower than I would have otherwise.

"It's no problem." Of course it wouldn't be, you shy lonely girl. "Sorry for the mess."

"It's... nice." Don't blame me for lacking good compliments.

"Back in Europe we always reintroduce ourselves when we enter peoples homes." Complete lie.

I rose a hand to shake hers. I deliberately did it in a Jim Carrey-esque way to make her more at ease. "My name is Chris Allen."

Better to make myself look like a cartoony idiot than to escalate things.

Parian shook my hand back, even through the dramatic hand shake. I thought I heard air escape from her mask, like a smile or a laugh or such to release some tension, though I couldn't be sure. "Sabah. It's- okay. I'd like to be wearing my mask if that's okay?"

"Sure... Whatever keeps you comfortable," I replied. I made a point of walking slowly to the sofa in her line of sight. I'd probably just sit here and avoid moving far, or out of her vision until I can gain some trust.

"No-nevermind," she replied, taking her mask back off. "I already showed you. It's rude."

I looked at the sofa - couch - which was plain view. I walked toward it and said what I was thinking, "I bet it helps that my power is basically useless in a fight?"

Calling out the obvious should inject a little humour here.

I'd probably be doing this a lot with Sabah, which is **great** , because I _finally_ met a cape that I could have some fun around. Apart from _maybe_ Sophia when I watch my words a lot.

She followed me to the sofa and sat down. "... Haha. Well I'm sure you could do a lot with it."

"It's good though that you think that. I kind of wish you had a shisha - ah, hookah," I mused. The apartment reminded me of my old Middle Eastern friends homes, especially as it _was one_ anyway.

"So, you're foreign?" She asked timidly.

"I'm European, though yeah I'm brown. It's kind of odd the lack of mixed people here." I mumbled, "It's like The Warriors _-_ only ever white and black people. What I remember, at least."

"I haven't heard of it. But yeah, it's very... racial. I'm thankful that I haven't ever had to deal with Empire since I made this costume. I usually enter more crowded areas otherwise."

She paused, "I would like for there to be a time when it wasn't necessary."

I nodded, "No kidding. I'd like to see them gone. Bad for business." I readjusted my seat, "Anyway... You probably want to learn more about _the fate of the world,_ " I said in an oogie boogie ' _it's haunted_ ' manner. I raised my hands and shook them for emphasis.

"Yes. That would be _quite good,_ " she annunicated cooly. Cape personality.

I looked at her.

She reiterated, "S-Sorry- I'd like to know more." Ah good. Well - not _good_ , but at least she respects what I'm saying. At least she's not using a voice on me that might be to _scare off the Empire or something_.

I'm glad that, unlike Panacea, Parian's life isn't founded on a lie of _possible mind-control_ and _drama._ So one awkward conversation has already been avoided.

"Okay... So... What kind of things would you like to learn?"

Sabah gave me a look, "How would I even know what to ask? I don't know. Apart from this _girlfriend_."

"Right, sorry!~" I grinned, and calmed down my expression, "Okay... But first I'll explain everything."

"My knowledge is extremely lacking. I know a lot of the _main_ things that happen, but I don't know about a lot of the nuances. Personally, I _don't think it matters_." I paused, "The timeline is going to change from the point I spread information or do things. So it won't matter _anyway_ , because it will be long gone."

"... Right," she nodded.

"But what _is_ important is that I have character references and a list of people who would be good allies, and a bunch of information on powers."

"And people we have to kill. And their weaknesses." I quickly added, " _We_ as in not-villains. I want to talk the Protectorate about it."

She sighed. "And you're... _sure_ of this?" Sabah asked, probing my eyes intently. I decided to push onto the next point before she started freaking out.

"Yes." I nodded. "Excellent. The character references should be helpful because, for the most part things are going to be different. And hopefully they would make good allies."

...

* * *

"... Yeah, this monster - an _entity_ \- is pretty dangerous. There are people out there at the moment who are working to stop that. Alexandria... Eidolon... and a bunch of people you don't know." I guess less scary than, ' _Scion will hunt you down and destroy everything you know'_ though. Besides, who uses the word _'multiverse'_ in a regular conversation? _Spare me._

" _Okay_..." Sabah replied, cradling her head with her hand. "... That's _awful_. Do you know how long it will be? That we even have!?"

She was starting to panic a bit.

I winced a little, "Not the best question. It might change, but probably several years - it's not definite. I know what happens in a timeline where we beat the monster- _thing_. I'm going to do is tell the people - or person - who wins about what they did, and see how things occur then."

"That's good... But why?! If this person - or people - makes a mistake we'd have no other options left!" She paused, " I-I think." Ah, at least the topic is taking her mind off of herself. I suppose that's an upside.

I took a moment to really consider that, "Because it was at a really, really big cost."

Maybe not... Taylor's dedication to avoiding murder meant that a lot of people _didn't_ die. Barring hundreds of millions of unmentioned dead civilians the only person who _really_ loses out is Taylor. Even Bakuda was captured.

Ugh, another thing to defend myself from. Bakuda. I can't wait to put her in her own time bubble, as long as she hasn't got a bomb to undo that.

But if I'm right about Taylor, then boy are self-inserts selfish. Greater good, my ass. If you're going to do it for Taylor and nobody else, then at least admit it. The only other good I could see is taking out the Slaughterhouse 9 faster than the main characters did.

"Maybe scratch that. But I'm going to ask her if they want to know. It would avoid some unnecessary suffering, and I'll avoid interfering afterwards so that I don't risk messing it up even if I do." Whoops, I said 'her', ah well.

Parian looked toward the kitchen before she turned back to me, "That makes sense. I'm not familiar with time travel or this precog stuff." I avoided glancing, though it might have been around where one of the pictures of her family was.

"It kind of doesn't. Actually, Parian - Sabah," I started lightly, "There... Are a few things that I could work out that I'd be missing if I did that. Like the PRT's corruption." I said, raising a hand. "In fact, there are many villains that have good motives or are innocent people, like Canary."

"Canary is innocent?" Parian perked up, "I haven't heard much about the case, but I was told about it by a few customers. I'm not so sure about that."

I steamrolled."Yeah. But on _the other hand,_ this is an entire _world of capes._ I only know about _maybe_ 20 capes in total, and there are _thousands_ of capes out there. I dunno if it's even worth spending time helping out these random people."

"I'll do what I can, when I can make sure that I've got somewhere safe to go to," I exhaled. "Anyway yeah, Canary's story was an accident."

"But why would they do that if the know that she's innocent?"

"Wow. That was really convenient questioning. Yeah, they _hate_ people who have master powers, and she's going to the bird cage because she is powerful. I don't remember what else happens to her. Regardless, I'm going to talk to the person that does the most in the future, then talk to the PRT - or Protectorate."

I wonder if I should come up with a plan. I want to go to Massachusetts to head to Boston to talk to Accord at some point, and that's where the trial will happen.

Sabah's head turned a little to the side, "B-but - you're saying that the PRT was corrupt?"

I smiled a bit to reassure her, "There are a few good people who aren't spies and corrupt bosses. Armsmaster is a good person, for example."

"Oh... I see."

I grinned, but my expression rested to neutral. "I'll tell them about their corruption and some threats they may face. At the moment I feel like I just should tell them every single thing wrong with them."

I paused, "Alexandria's _eviiiillll anti-monster group_ runs the PRT **and** the Protectorate." The comic emphasis wasn't funny here, but it was for self amusement, "They're currently going to encourage a lot of shit to happen to Brockton Bay as _an experiment,"_ I added with disdain.

"It's for them to see whether we'd survive if the monster actually did lose - or win, or something. Hell if I know. Basically they're going to encourage it to get worse and worse. This means more crime and villains."

Sabah took a second before she paled, "WHAT!? But _why would they do that!?_ It's Alexandria! I mean, that doesn't sound like it's needed at all!"

At least it's good to see that she's picked up some momentum. "Don't they see that Brockton Bay needs _help as it is_!?" She stood up and paced in front of the TV. "Are you sure?"

I nodded.

"I thought that was the _one_ corporation that **_wasn't_ ** secretly run by capes!" She sounded more exasperated than angry, like it was more of a separate point. "There was Capewatch, OPS, even that attempt by the _army!_ "

" _That's_ what I meant by the police being corrupt. From the top down."

She continued, "-But why would they do that? _Honestly!_ We have the biggest population of Nazis! And the ABB!" She decried. "It's hard for me to make a living while trying to placate gangs that are near me." She continued, "The PRT haven't arrested any capes in _months_ now. I need to put on some tea or something. Do you want any?"

"Sure, that would be nice. But if you're talking about that," I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I wasn't that well informed to begin with. I know _mostly_ the main things that happened," Who'd have thought that I'd appreciate being retold the same story over and over? Ha.

Yeah, as I said before - you can talk about monsters all day but it seems that Parian is more concerned with things that affect her on a day to day basis. She's a lot more grounded than I am, I think. I just follow random whims.

Were other superpower organisations sabotaged by Cauldron?

...

* * *

Her kitchen was nice, and kind of lived in. She didn't have a lot of photos, but it was decorated with a few knickknacks and things that she must have picked up from all over the place. We waited for the tea to boil.

"Alexandria."

"Is the head of the organisation, Director Costa-Brown."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Not outside of their group."

"And are you a thinker?" She asked. It had a little heat in it.

"No, I'm just well informed. But my knowledge is limited like that. I could explain how I know but it's beside the point," I shrugged. "To lay it out plainly. I arrived here only about a week or two ago. I came from a world like Earth Aleph. Don't get too fussed over it, it's like jumping in a portal and triggering with powers."

Sabah looked curious. Very curious, actually. "Wow. Was it very different there?"

I gave her a glance. "No, not really. It's not actually of note, which is funny." I paused, "I'm surprised that you believe me."

"Oh, believe me, I'll need to see the ABB do what you're saying to believe you." Shame, I would've left Canberra if I arrived earlier. "But do you think that you have dimension-based powers?"

"Dimensional powers? Ha. No way." ROB, for one. And she _does_ believe me. _Yay!_

"You know... I'd kind of thought about what it would be like if I was here," I shrugged. "We had no superpowers, and I wanted to capitalise here for _power_. And I guess I kind of am, but it's nowhere near how much I'm just looking for safety."

"And _actual_ safety, not an illusion of it. The police, gangs, _and_ the group that wants to defeat the monster all want to find anyone who is _useful_ and force them to work for them. Though the monster group is basically the police _twice_ ," I commented wryly. "Maybe you might be able to help with getting the best of both worlds."

The pot on the stove whistled. "Tea's done."

"Great."

We brought the cups, sugar container and mint tea back to the coffee table. We spent a minute or so quietly making our cups.

"I-I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this information," Parian murmured while she held the tea in her hands.

I paused and shrugged. "I'm going to use civilians to get most stuff done. Gangs need to make profit, capes need outfits or upgrades, and independents lack resources to defend themselves from gangs... All that jazz. Most capes are broke."

I sipped my tea. "The easiest way for me to take out any gangs, if I were to do so... which would bring other capes in." I paused, "Actually, before everything else let me elaborate. Powers are caused by Scion."

"Wha...? What? How?!" She paused, "W-Why would the guy who first had superpowers _also_ be the one handing them out?"

Might as well tell her the whole shebang.

"Oh good. You were paying attention." I slurped my tea for a good 10 seconds to annoy her. "Right. So Scion is actually an alien. He comes from a species that is so powerful that he is one of the last 2 left. Because they all fought to the death."

I raised a hand, "I know it's crazy, just bear with it. They are giant blobs - _apparently_ like a kind of space whale - that releases crystals. These crystals - shards - are what causes powers in the brain." I sipped. "The way it works is that - _that's some good tea_ \- the way it works is that the shards choose their capes." I think, if it moved from Danny to Taylor.

She seemed intrigued and, disgusted I think. Yeah, I suppose even then aliens intruding into your brain is disturbing. Time to get to the point. "The aliens purpose is to make those shards cause conflict, like quicker Darwinism. So anyone who has superpowers is conditioned to want to fight with others." She raised her hand, no doubt about to get started on a rant, "-Those who know are being quiet so that Scion doesn't notice."

"What? But why!? I mean, I get why, but that's ridiculous! _Space aliens._ "

I researched articles discussing Scion as the inventor of powers. It's a reasonable theory, considering that he was the first cape. My bet is that Scion set a Path For Victory to prevent that from happening. Heck, I wonder if any villain or regular person has tried to suicide by cape to Scion, or if he avoided that too. It'd be funny if nobody has _even asked him about testing._

... Taylor basically has Eden, the other Entity, her center of consciousness stuck in her head. What else would you call the part of the brain that controls all the rest? No wonder it's called PARAhumans. Don't think I didn't notice the foreshadowing of her amazing ' _persuasion'_ skills in the cafeteria scene.

"I understand that Scion is the monster...?" Parian interjected.

I smiled at her. Yeah, shit's fucking crazy. "Yeah. I'm surprised that you're taking it so well."

"It's not hard to take when you're told that _Alexandria_ is going to cause Brockton Bay to fight for supremacy." She spat with venom, "It's like that _Battle Royale movie!_ "

I shrugged, "Conflict activates powers." I took a pause. "And yes, _fuck_ Alexandria. Where was I again?"

"I don't remember," she say thoughtfully.

"Oh yeah, taking out gangs. I need to bring more capes in."

"Give me a second to digest this information," Sabah replied, before standing up and walking around the kitchen, putting dishes away in the dishwasher.

After around 30 seconds she sat back down and asked, "Reinforcements? You mean to need to bring in capes to stop the ABB attack?"

"No - sadly," I sighed. "What I was getting at is this conflict thing. In the Slaughterhouse 9 at the moment there is a cape called Mannequin." I stirred my tea. "This guy used to be a hero, but the Simurgh screwed up his plans. He - summarily - went insane and dedicated his life to sabotaging anyone who tries to make the world better. The Slaughterhouse Nine is just one of the groups of these fucked up conflict purveyors." _Eidolon's weak reasoning, Alexandria's obsession with subjugation_ , heck - not even villains are happy. _  
_

Sabah looked horrified and raised her hands to her mouth. "B-But they aren't the kind of people you mean are they?"

"Well..." I thought about an answer to settle on. "I can't really tell you either way, and I don't really want to scare you... But you should definitely improve and prepare. You're most likely to be safest here _in the future_ ," Most definite lie, but otherwise I would die. But it's not like I won't protect her. "Scratch that. Definitely will be because you know me, and I don't like being found out." Taylor's pretty immune to common sense, but she can recognise when someone is innocent if I tell her about events. Provided that she wants to listen to me.

I shook my head as a sign of clearing it, "Sorry. Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to learn how to be better in combat."

Sabah groaned. She looked apprehensive and physically drained.

I smiled lightly, "On the plus side, I'm just going to take care of anything that would come _into_ the city. My - our - city." I paused and looked at her more firmly, "You shouldn't worry. If it's any consolation, I know that you are capable of going solo against Behemoth. And holding him off. I wanted to say that earlier."

She dropped her grim resignation to gawped at me. "... WHAAA?" she said loudly. "How could _I_ _possibly_ begin to fight against Behemoth!? I can't even lift more than a couple stacks of fabric!" An accent actually shone through there.

I smiled widely at her. Atta girl, get excited. I burst into slightly muted laughter and responded, "It is completely true though. I have no _clue_ how it is possible though. It didn't happen in the timeline, but I learned of it." I paused, "As for how... Stopping air flow maybe? Picking Behemoth might have been specific, so _maybe_ oxygen to prevent his fire and lightning? Or at least the fire - I'm clutching at straws. I hope you can figure it out. Still considering the necromancy idea."

Sabah winced and looked at me disbelievingly. "No. No way."

"I'll have to explain why I know - and yes, yes way," I added, giving her a look, "- but let me simplify things. Here, in this world, if it's a really morbid or negative thing, _that's_ probably the right solution. _All_ powers are _meant_ for combat. Between _super powerful space aliens_."

She stared at me and asked, "Are you going to tell me about _how you know_?" It was a pretty earnest question.

"Sure. I _know_ that you're someone that I can trust with this information, but it's a _burden_. You are welcome to help me _once I can organise a location to work from_..." I said, leadingly.

"I'm flattered." Oh god, not two of them! "But I do _want_ to work with you. That is, if it is how you're describing it and it's more dangerous not to."

Is that what I think it is? I didn't bother holding in my excitement. I slowly placed down my tea.

"Yeeeessss! _Finally!_ _YESSSSSSSS!_ " I fist pumped, "Hell yeah."

Sabah stared at me blankly.

" _Hell yes._ " I finally got to snark, "Also, I should bring my friends over to hang out. But then they'd ask if you were my girlfriend, and then you'd say that you liked girls." I paused, "And then they'd repeat the question and I'd punch them."

She smiled a little through her jaded exterior.

"I had to hold onto that joke the _entire time_ I was here," I replied, exasperated.

"T-That's it, our partnership is over." Sabah smiled.

"So do you want to work with me, as a fellow rogue?"

"Well, your skills definitely help with what I like doing. I-I don't see why not." She gestured around, "You're in my apartment."

"Sweeeeeeeeeeet." I sat back down and sipped my tea, "I had to hold off the urge to extend that 'e' noise for a few minutes. Anyway, high five."

She begrudgingly returned the gesture.

* * *

We both sat, reclined on the sofa with a romantic comedy on low in the background.

"Boy, that was exhausting," she spoke. We hadn't talked in a good half hour, content to just veg out and watch the movie instead.

"Garrgmgmgmgm," I replied intelligently.

 _I_ was the guy doing all the talking.

I should amend what I said last time. Parian made me not want to hang out with capes _with problems_. Parian is fine, just reclusive it seemed.

I spoke up over the bad pun in the movie, "You know, we still need to cover things that we're going to do now."

"Do we have to!? Let's leave it for tomorrow."

"I should let you know now that I'm a paranoid man. Oh right - yeah, I'm not 15. I'll explain later though when you don't think I'm full of shit."

She didn't reply, obviously not wanting to appear rude. I imagine she would've said '... Do that.'

"But we should say our plans. Otherwise who will entertain our captivated audience?"

I stared blankly at the wall I imagine the camera would have been placed.

Parian spoke up, "Stop staring at the wall."

"So we need to figure out if it works against hits and our combined distance. I'm not against training." I took a moment to reflect, "I have a feeling that Contessa - the amazing precog, who is also in Alexandria's anti-monster group - she'd probably murder me if I'm _not_ actually protected against her."

"What? How?" Sabah turned to look at me, obviously concerned. Ah, I wish she liked boys.

"It's just the way they operate. Civilian lives aren't important, and my power is not useful for killing Scion."

It seems like the only thing they'd do with the _knowledge_ I have is get Taylor and Flechette on retainer, and get the Endbringers under control. Maybe make a Flechette gun, or maybe accidentally tip off Scion. They might not even act on the information, and it could all be a Simurgh plot for all I know.

And I sure as shit don't trust Taylor to people who systematically kidnap, imprison amnesiacs and presumably allow mass crime to occur. So yeah, I'd rather leave Taylor informed and point her at Alexandria when the precog says that she's an obstacle.

"That's... disturbing." She said, probing my face for indicators of fear. There probably were some.

I sighed to release some of the tension, "Yeah."

Besides, Contessa may assassinate me in an office if I register a business. Not for a big reason, but because my financial power and employees are _useful_. But! Cauldron _won't_ if I'm a powerful cape. If I was, I could be a **_monster_** and she won't kill me.

If I take an iota of the power that Cauldron has - like the Number Man in finance - then they would probably desire to subjugate or plain kill and loot me if possible... So it's a shame that my superpower is shit, so fuck you Contessa.

I might as well be a civilian. My power is only good for generating money. It's not even reliable for surveillance. So screw Cauldron. I have to spend my day out-thinking people with aliens influencing them to kill or subjugate me if I'm in good standing. I doubt even a cape ID will hide my spending - the Number Man could probably deduce that it's being created somewhere and target that.

I ran my hand through my hair, "It'd just be me though. It's why I'm going to all these lengths by inventing the backer 'Big Bad' and looking for fences and all that. It's either staying under the radar or nothing." Because I'm probably going to kill Jack Slash, and _nobody_ \- especially Cauldron - is going to be happy when that happens. Like I want _him_ getting enough time to get anywhere near me.

"... I guess," I added.

"I'm going to go get popcorn," Sabah sat up.

"Thanks." I gave her a smile. "As far as I'm concerned, the anti-monster group probably isn't needed at this point."

I don't know enough about Cauldron to waltz in and tell them exactly what to do. The point of the franchise is that it's morally grey, and I'm not familiar enough with Worm to hand them a better and more moral solution.

So my strategy is Brockton Bay vs the world. Let's put Doormaker and Clairvoyant on retainer.

Oh good, Sabah returned and she didn't have a gun. I'm not going to lie, I was getting paranoid. How do you trust someone who is conditioned to distrust?

I consciously relaxed, "Say Sabah, if you wanted any superpower in the world, what would it be?"

We stared at the TV for a minute.

"... I'd say Eidolon," she sat down. "I could fly and shoot lasers. If I need to brush my teeth I'd probably have a power for that. You?"

"Path to Victory. Contessa's ability." I reached and grabbed some popcorn, "Have I explained it yet?"

"Twice."

"Hah. Okay. But _I_ _bet you didn't consider_ that if I had Path to Victory, you could act as recklessly as you want if I made a path about it."

I ate the mouthful of popcorn and swallowed. "Speaking of, it's probably why Alexandria is so crazy."

...

* * *

 _..._

 _"Taylor, I'm not a hero. I'm just a guy. I'm not a martyr." I paused, "Scion is not my thing. I can buy you a video camera though if you want evidence."_

 _"I don't understand... Why would you not use your abilities to take down all these supposed threats? We have Endbringers!"_

 _We'd been standing on the rooftop talking about whether I should tell her about what's going on._

 _"It's your world, Taylor. I didn't grow up in some semblance-of-democracy with giant monsters and nazis."_

 _"But you told me about all of these personal crises..." Taylor mumbled._

 _"Why are you talking to_ Herbert _?" Sophia asked, sneering Taylor's name. She walked out of the stairway door.  
_

 _I had a line that I had thought of a while ago, "Sophia. You said she was a slut. Duh. So why else would I be?"_

 _Taylor looked at me seething in anger.  
_

 _Boy I wish I wasn't here._

 _..._

 _"Don't worry Amy. You'll be fine. Unless the Slaughterhouse 9 came to make you a member OR SOMETHING." I said angrily at the air._

 _Because people can't do anything good here without drama._

 _"... Do the Slaughterhouse 9 come to get me?"_

 _"... Yes. When you have a breakdown. Best hope that you quit working at the hospital, and break a few rules, eh?"_

 _She shook, and I brought her toward me in a one-armed hug. I added, "... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."_

 _Boy. It's really like dealing with a baby deer._

 _She broke herself off from the hug with watery eyes. "If that were to happen... Would it have been me doing it?"_

 _I answered with the blindingly obvious. Another thing thrown out the window with capes. "Well. If someone is under duress, are they really themselves?"_

 _We sat in silence on our own._

 _..._

I woke up.

Fuck, that was a horrible dream. _Like I'm seriously going to be talking to Panacea any time again._

I sat up and stretched.

I looked around where I was. The television was off, and I was in Parian's living room. Shit, talk about intruding. I hope she's okay with this.

Ah, might as well get up then. I walked into the kitchen to find her there, drinking coffee.

"You fell asleep."

"Oh. Thanks for not waking me up," I remarked.

"I was afraid that you'd wake up in the middle of the night, so I filled the apartment with my dolls."

"Umm... Can you explain?"

She held her coffee mug with both of her hands, "If you had asked, I would have told you to leave the apartment."

Shit, she looks tense.

"Parian? If you want I can go."

"G-Go," she stuttered.

I made my way out of the apartment, as escorted by Parian. I walked down the steps into the street and began looking for the first bus stop I saw. No, I'll grab a taxi.

Shit, what was that all about?


	8. Chapter 8

I walked home. It turned out that no taxi services were open at 5am. And on a sunday in January _,_ it's cold.

Well I need to know what's going on with Parian. And I probably need to tell her my actual age... Whenever she cools off _,_ I guess. On the plus side, I paid her the $5 thousand, which is one less thing to keep track of. My checklist is getting pretty ridiculous now.

Let's see... I need to see if thinkers do pick up my projection or me, maybe hire people or tell my friends so that I could send them to Accord just in case. I also need to consider talking to Taylor. I'm starting to get desperate, but I know that it's best to wait a few weeks for when she starts to use her powers.

I'm walking a bit of a tightrope where I feel like the longer I wait, the more in danger I'm in. Especially with Tattletale out there. I swear I don't remember ever reading where Taylor declined the Undersiders because Tattletale was too accidentally antagonising. Even without the rules, if someone sent my exact location to me over a forum I'd be thoroughly creeped out. That, and she's probably _already_ broken the rules and given me to Coil.

 _Unless my abilities give me some sort of protection._ I looked up from the road I was zoning out at. _At least she's probably asleep at the moment._

I activated my ability.

 _An eyeball forms. An alley with a metal trash can. Two Asian males assuming a crouched posture. Shorter male flicks pocket knife against jeans, holding the handle loosely. One p-_

Sketchy. I swerved myself back onto the main road, towards the less-dangerous area where the bus stop should be. It should be fine if there are any buses running at this time.

Hm. If I had headed that way... I might've had to shoot them.

If some gangster comes at to me with a knife... That's why I'm carrying this gun. And if that happened when I met Taylor, I imagine she'd give me an earful about how superpowers means restraint. I disagree.

I am a _civilian_. A civilian with _looking_ powers. Of course I'm going to kill them to defend myself. It's not like parahuman equals 'brute package'. That and I really don't sympathise with murderous behaviour enough to restrain them. Seriously, screw Taylor. I didn't grow up in a corrupt hell hole, and that shit is not normal.

Endbringers be damned. I've been here a week and - it's not as crazy as the story paints it - but I am surprised that people haven't gone vigilante. Society is crumbling. I've got basically no motivation to play the 'cape game', and to be honest, if we killed villains we'd have similar losses in Endbringer fights because of how they hold back. But that's a silly thought anyway - I'm not _suicidal_ enough to do something like that. And even then people would think, 'what if the villains were alive to defend us?!'

I'm saving the phrase, 'You think I wasn't going to shoot you, we're in _Worm_ you fuck!' for when I need to. I've got to have some amusement here.

I reached the bus stop. No one else was here.

I sighed in relief, _It's a really good thing she didn't send me home._ _This area is incredibly sketchy, and I'd completely forgotten. I really shouldn't have pushed her so much._

It's a good thing that I have money, I guess. _I am_ a financial island onto myself...

...

Fuck! I just realised. Accord would notice the consistent un-neat and asymmetric details in the money! Argh.

 _Now? Right_ when I need Parian she just starts acting out of character!? Now I'll _also_ need to figure out how to register a bank account without going to Accord.

I rubbed my temples. I wonder if Parian's behaviour is trigger-related. _It's basically never-not trigger related_ , I thought blandly. _I hope hers wasn't a crazy ordeal, but then again that's what triggers are._

I looked at the bus routes.

I can't wait to get a limo. Heck, a taxi would be handy right now. I'd risk my privacy with a mobile phone if I could have transport that's safe, quiet and away from danger and detection. Ha - with my money, I could even pay for blackout windows for a whole taxi service if I need to. Parian or me could go to a dealership and get an average car with them.

I wonder if mobile phones are more safe. Does the Simurgh affect satellites used for GPS? It'd be interesting if she uses her precog to hack into satellites and tech, and then make more timelines to try again.

I twiddled my thumbs. No buses.

I could ask my friends. No point doing it in costume because they could work out the connection. And if I told them directly, I'd need to keep a close eye on them because they know my civilian ID. I bet Coil never had to deal with this shit. Just keep using timelines and experiment until nobody can track anything back to you.

Fuck, I need to kidnap - talk to - Dinah don't I?

Cons: I'd look very suspicious. And then I'd have to protect Dinah from Coil.

So once again... Tell Taylor, but risk with canon - at least the Lung intro, but at least I can get rid of Coil. I can even tell the PRT if I speak with Taylor. I'm basically stuck between giving Taylor experience and keeping it canon and avoiding getting discovered and personal danger. No experience for Taylor equals a dumb, unaware Taylor and a dead multiverse.

You know what? Screw it, I'm going full Dinah. I'm sure she can help with keeping us both out of Coil's clutches.

I placed my finger on the bus map.

I'm catching a different bus. Let's go to the library.

Man, I am so tired. Let's hope sleep thinking doesn't affect my judgment. Ha ha _har._

A crow nearby made a guttural throat noise. Fuck you birrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.

* * *

I sipped my Readygo coffee. It's about damn time that the library has opened.

 _Fucking Parian... Fucking Amy... Fucking... Capes_. I rested my face in my palm. _Great, lack of sleep is starting to catch up to me._

It's time to google - or whatever Earth Bet search thing exists here - the mayor's house and hope that Dinah Alcott lives there. _At least I'm not stupid enough to directly search for Dinah's name, and I just 'happened' to find mayor family pictures._

Cons: If I save Dinah, Taylor won't stick around in the Undersiders.

For Gods sakes. You know what, I'm just going to ask Dinah.

I coughed after I realised what I was saying.

 _Hahaha hahahaha. That is fucking funny. Holy shit, it might be the lack of sleep, but this is hilarious. I'm going to a 13 year old to basically gauge whether or not I should let her be kidnapped. I'm such a fucking CLOD._ I looked around the library and burst out into hysterical laughter.

A minute later I'd reached the end of a vigorous _talking to_ about the importance of silence in the library. Not my fault Immaculata has a test in March of all times.

"... Sorry," I mumbled. Thank you _Lorrie,_ library _assistant._

Anyway! Dinah or Taylor? On one hand the multiverse may potentially die, on the other I don't die. At least with the first I won't have to worry about if my anti-Scion aka Flechette gun doesn't work because _I'll be dead._ Bitches.

I took a duped coin out of my pocket and mentally labelled Dinah for heads, and Taylor for tails. For the greater good.

In all honesty, I was pissed off at the theme of capes going crazy whenever I tried to accomplish things with them, and I didn't want to start telling Taylor about canon. I can only hope to avoid another girl cape getting pissed at me - at least I can rely on Sophia _for that_.

 _An eye emerges. A hospital room with an adult brunette nurse. Dust collides with the sclera. A television screen is on. The nurse replaces medical tools in the room with sterilised versions. The nurse does not see the eye-  
_

Taylor's at home. Or running or something.

I flip the coin in my hand... And it lands heads.

...

I wonder if Dinah likes to smoke?

I lightly drummed my fingers on the computer desk.

I have to avoid Coil and Tattletale...I could confront Tattletale. Though I'd probably console her that Coil will die _\- eventually -_ so that she puts in an effort to not expose me to him. Only when I feel that Taylor isn't jumping ship from the Undersiders.

I stared at the picture of the major and his relatives on the thick computer monitor. It was incredibly out-dated and had a Made in China label on it.

...

Ah! Okay. I think I have a working solution.

I'd ask Taylor that if a _supposed bad guy_ in the future had kidnapped a child and then done _what had happened to Dinah_ , if she would still take down that bad guy knowing that I prevented him from doing so.

If she believes me.

Alternately I can tell her - once she's part of the Undersiders - that Coil is secretly torturing them in alternate timelines and if they leave he won't stop until they die. That works.

Damn thinkers. It's good that his power wants them to be safe. Hopefully Dinah would help me find out whether or not thinker abilities apply to me.

Okay, so I'm free now to talk to Dinah without worrying too much.

Taylor... If I talk to her in person, I'd just be giving her hope, and if I gave her hope she probably wouldn't go out and hit Lung. I can try and ease her worries though.

...

I jotted down the mayor's home address on paper and packed my stuff up. I'm gonna go take a nap first, before it gets later than 9:32am on a sunday morning and I catch some unwanted attention.

I take a piece of paper out of the printer and write on it in pen:

 _I AM COMING FOR YOU DINAH_

 _PS: HURRY UP ALREADY, SHEESH_

Good enough. I'll need to check if she has actually triggered though. Also banding together with her just seems like a bad idea, honestly. It might be good if she is capable of a prediction that tells me if my gun would work - like, 'will the world exist in a few years?' when I've made it.

I stood up and stuffed the paper in my pocket. I'd need to write it with my projection if I don't want my genetics on it. For now, I'm gonna go home and _sleep_.

* * *

...

I sat up. I'd been dreaming of riding a surf board in space before having to fight Armsmaster in a pit of crocodiles. Oddly enough, not a lot of family stuff. I guess it's all the built up stress back home. I feel oddly more free here, what with not hearing about dramatic shit all the time. Maybe I'll mourn them later, especially now that I can afford shit.

I got up and walked around. The answering machine had a notification for an unknown number, so I played the recording.

 _"Hi. Is this Chris? This is Sabah."_ She paused, _"I am sorry... You reminded me of some things and it really f-freaked me out... If you want to do the costume, that's okay. It wouldn't be okay to hold onto your money. Sorry."_

Oh, good. I guess. I was still apathetic and tired. I kind of want to work with her a lot, so I hope she can get over whatever it is.

I idly picked up the gun from the table and started playing around with it.

I'll have to see if I am anti-thinker, and how if affects us if me and Parian can use our powers together.

I'll call Parian later. Heck, it might make her feel bad if I let her stew. I was playing it down, but I was scared coming back through ABB territory in the body of a 15 year old. Myself.

I sighed, _I really hope the thinker thing works. Tattletale could easily deduce Parian being involved, even if I would like to be lie-detected by Armsmaster for the PRT.  
_

The outfit would probably be a full body bedsheet. Ha - we're _really_ gonna have to sell the idea that we're not a projection. A full 'walk to and from locations' just in case. I don't have the same benefit as the Siberian, who just kills all witnesses.

There was a knock at the door.

I shuffled over to it. I brought my gun along, as always. Constant vigilance. I popped it in my deep pockets.

Say what you will about 2000s-era clothing, but at least it has deep pockets. Which is awfully handy for a handgun - even if the lack of safety is atrocious.

I opened the door to find a mildly attractive blonde teenager.

She instantly began the accosting. "Oh hi! I'm a neighbour and... it's a little cheesy isn't it?" She grinned, "Sorry. I'd like some sugar."

I glanced down the hallway, but nobody was there. I looked back at the girl and sighed. "Yeah yeah. Hold on a moment."

Still... She wasn't as attractive as the Simurgh. Best example of 'look, don't touch' you could find in a school computer lab during the week.

I closed the door, locked it and wandered to the kitchen. I ended up shrugging, and I poured out most of the sugar, leaving most in a bag to hand to the girl. I wandered back over.

 _Still, I wonder if there are any good Simurgh porn photoshops anywhere..._

Her face was there to greet me when I handed her the bag.

She made a show of looking around the doorway, "You live here on your own?"

She was pretty short, and had a fairly piercing look. She had some freckles that were spread across her face, but it was odd that she'd live here. I hadn't really paid her a lot of attention, being interested in the boring routine of neighbour stuff in an apartment complex. This building was mostly for families and older people.

I segued into non-answer. "Wouldn't you like to know," I winked.

I did it again, audibly accompanying it with the word 'wink'.

"Cute," she replied deadpan. "Anyway, nice to meet 'ya."

She turned and bid her adieu. I glanced at her as she left and made to close the door. _Nice ass though.  
_

A connection in my deep subconscious flared up. I started walking outside the apartment towards her.

"Hey! One sec," I called out.

I shifted into powerwalking and repeated myself louder, "Hey! Wait up!"

She stopped and I caught up with her about 20 or so feet from my apartment.

She turned to face me and I spoke what I was thinking, "Tattletale."

No response.

I stared at her face. She had the same demeanor, although she was a bit taken aback. _As all teenage girls would be if they were stopped like this_.

I didn't bother probing her for her response. Either it's just a girl that I scared off by being paranoid, or this girl has basically signed me away to _Coil_.

"Your team is here, aren't they?"

Nothing. It wasn't like she was going to reply to that.

I stared at the blonde girl. I was getting increasingly convinced that this was Tattletale. _Who the fuck asks for sugar in a place like this run down complex? Why is this girl here anyway? This might be close to Winslow, but it's bad for general living. Gah._

Either way, not a single person has _asked me for sugar_ , and I certainly hadn't seen a single girl my age here. It's too sketchy.

 _Great, preparing for the Undersiders._

I looked around down the hallway, which had another 20 or so feet. Nobody was there. Let's see... Aisha hasn't triggered..? Okay. I'll have to go with my gut I guess.

"Why did you come to me?" I asked bluntly, "And don't tell me something about sugar." I did my best to feign a calm expression while staring at her.

"I don't-"

 _Well here go all of my plans._ I retained my stare at her and shook my head. _  
_

The blonde girl - assumedly Tattletale - paused and replied, "What if my team was here?"

She let that sink in deliberately and smiled a shit-eating grin.

 _..._ Was this a feint? Both for if it was her _and_ if she had her team. I maintained a few feet of distance and thought about it.

I realised I'd taken a posture that was best described as 'parade rest', I consciously being more lax than I actually was. _Was probably going to be soon_ _too._

I steadily gazed down the hallway. I saw neither hide nor hair of the Undersiders, same as when I looked earlier. Same results, _and besides -_ _this girl is goading as hell.  
_

I slumped, putting my hands in my pockets. I slid my hand onto my gun as seemlessly as I could.

"I don't believe you," I replied.

I paused and laid out a new option. "I'd like to talk some more."

The blonde girl grinned. "Sorry. I'd love to chat, but I've gotta go."

I clicked the safety off of my gun. "... I'd _prefer_ that we talk in my apartment."

Out with the pretenses then.

She stiffened. She then froze.

I was getting very suspicious. _If this was Tattletale she would have been able to deduce that I have a gun in my pocket - or something!_

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. I adjusted my grip on the gun as she stared at me.

After a lull _maybe-Tattletale_ replied. "I think I'll join you."

Fortunately for all my paranoia, she was taking this absurdly well. That was more than sketchy enough to show that she was acquainted with this. More possible positives.

"Yes, that's _right,_ " I replied, jerking my head in a motion back toward the apartment.

She reluctantly went ahead, and - thank Christ - I sighed in sheer relief when she didn't move like some naive teen. No foot dragging or whatever.

I carefully maintained a distance. I didn't want to give her an opportunity to grab a kitchen knife when she was in the apartment.

Once I was sure we had moved out of sight from the hallway I raised the gun at her in a two handed grip. She stood stock still about several feet from the door. I gestured with my two handed grip the direction of the sofa and said, in my best impersonation of _every TV show ever made,_ "The sofa."

She looked befuddled for one second before walking over. Oh right, English words.

She sat down and I closed the door and moved to stand opposite her, leaning on the wall facing her, in a more comfortable position with the gun.

Now how would I begin with this?

"So this is how it's going to go down," I began, deliberately pausing to sink it in. "You tell me why you came to me."

I paused for an innately long period of time. _Screw it._

I've had enough of these encounters with stupid capes thinking that I should wait on them on hand and feet, honestly. Is it a teenager _thing_? God.

I stared at the girl. " _Sarah_."

Her movements slowed. Fuck, finally! _Some_ sign!

I took that moment to grin in a deliberately Machiavellian manner. "I didn't _really_ know if it was you, but _fantastic_." _Bitch._

 _I am not going to get dragged to Coil._ I let it sink in and continued in a much less sinister manner, "Tattletale, why are you here?"

She was silent.

I reiterated. "I'm not _asking_ here. I'll be blunt with you. You just fucked up... a lot." _Of my shit._

I paused. "I," I thumbed my chest momentarily, "am a massive precog, and I was _trying_ to get you away from under your bosses thumb. You _idiot_."

She was... pale? I guess? But I really couldn't tell if it was because I was holding her captive, or for any other reason.

Also, I am fully aware that I'm dealing with a teenage girl. However - you don't invade peoples privacy and _consciously put them at risk of kidnapping_.

Assuming that it's her. Actually, if it is... I suppose even if Coil kidnaps me, I can send a projection to tell the PRT who Coil is, and I'll be free. But then I'd be in danger throughout and conscripted into the Wards afterwards, but this bitch could be free of being pseudo-tortured.

That sounds like a convincing argument, but if I did that then she - I mentally said, glaring at her - wouldn't be someone that could sweet talk the Simurgh, or capable of responsibility. And I'd somehow have to help the Undersiders with subpar canon knowledge... Probably killing the multiverse.

I obviously had all the time in the world to think this up, as maybe-Tattletale hemmed and hawed.

... Oh wait, Coil would torture me into learning about the future. Nope. Not plausible. _And I'm not killing myself just to fix canon._

"Right. So, I've been avoiding using thumbscrews here because I feel like you would actually partake in a back and forth..." I said leadingly as I stared at her. "You aren't getting any more time to stall me."

The blonde girl nodded. "... I'm sorry." She cleared her throat. " _Coil_ \- has been asking about changes to the housing market, but he doesn't know that you - I think - are making more bills. Assuming you want to know about him." She paused, "... Your power messed with my abilities... I - I didn't expect that you would use the gun."

I stared at her. She untensed slightly.

"I... uh..." She sighed, " _Ugh_. I saw your bills and saw that you've been making copies of them. I couldn't find you directly, so I guessed that you had some sort of no-thinker ability. I looked in public buildings - if you weren't producing lots of money, and were part of a gang it would have been passed through a bank. So if you weren't living off of it you had a job or school, or maybe you were a tinker with a cloning device."

Ugh, of course. I mean, _c'mon_. Tattletale couldn't even figure out Coil's ability. You put out something _physical_ and bam, she knows instantly.

 _"... And street cameras aren't hard to get access to,"_ she mumbled. _  
_

I waved my hand, "Enough, I get it. Gimme a moment to think about this."

I leaned against the wall and kept the gun in her general direction, in one hand. I sat and thought.

 _Might as well address Coil, then..._

"-You aren't going to bring me back to my parents then?" She asked, tilting her head back up to look at me.

"What? No."

"Oh good..." She also murmured quietly, " _The thought came to me._ "

I fought the urge to clap for her asking a question.

After a minute I paused. "Tattletale. Lisa. Sarah." I rested my face in my palm. "You've put me in a shit position."

I steeled myself. "How do I go about this... Coil... Has a power that allows him to torture you for information in a second reality. It's like..." I waved my hand for an analogy, "If you were able to go back in time, and then pick between the different realities. And you can only die if they get you in both of those - inescapable scenarios."

I gave her time for that to sink in. Through all of the weariness and fear, her face slowly paled as her power went to work on it. After a few seconds, she started crying.

"I am sorry. In a few months you might get a teammate that you can work with against him."

After a few seconds, Lisa turned to look at me with red eyes. " _Might_ get? Why are you such an asshole!?"

She wiped her tears. Poor girl, but at least she's not in any _real_ danger now that she started talking. I _would've_ shot her.

Even if I wasn't doing it because she just assisted in kidnapping, it's not hard to figure out that if Coil grabs me he'll torture me and either A. I die or B. He uses my knowledge and the multiverse dies.

Fuck hoping for the PRT to get to me in time, I _already_ know most of Tattletale's discoveries from Worm, and _might_ have a shot at taking down Scion.

"You can kill him in the _other_ timeline," I replied plainly. I would've shrugged if not for the gun.

She stared at me with puffy eyes, "That doesn't explain anything!" She mumbled, " _No. You need me to be strong? Accord? No. Endbringers? Unlikely._ "

"Big threats," I said, and gestured with the pistol in a kind of 'and so on' motion. I noticed the gun and held it more loosely.

Her eyes widened, and I quickly interjected, "So!"

I stood up, "Wait - fuck. You just made me have to give up my civilian ID, didn't you?" I pursed my lips, "There's no way out of this that doesn't involve me having to kill Coil, and ruining the future. In some fashion."

Tattletale's eyes widened at me and she glanced to the pistol. She didn't reply for a minute or so. "... What are you talking about?"

This time I was genuinely withholding a clap, because it was an actual question that isn't about Coil or her _parents_.

I waved her off, albeit reluctantly. "Well... It would pretty much have almost the same effect if I shot you as if I solved your 'problem' for you. The timeline gets worse, and I don't even _know_ the most dangerous bits of the future - besides _'they happened'_." I shrugged, "Everything has an effect, including Coil. Also Alexandria will probably get involved."

But really, Taylor wouldn't be the same. I couldn't really give a shit about Lisa.

 _"Torture..."_ Tattletale, or Lisa, started shaking, so I eased off to let her calm down from her panic.

I would get the poor girl a cup of tea or something, but I didn't want to expose myself to her. I just wanted her gone. She might be useful, but she has a bit of a way to go before I'd _want_ to work with her. I can help her out of _pity_ though.

For all I know, she might've noticed that I admitted that I was disposable. And considering I wasn't really helping her out with Coil... Though I might have to now that I told her. Sigh.

After a few minutes she spoke up, "... You don't sound impressed at the name Alexandria. I don't need my power for that."

She assumes I know her power then. I hummed, "She's not a nice person."

We sat in silence for a long period of time.

"... So there is no going back from here eh?" I asked to myself.

Tattletale - or Lisa - was silent. I suppose I wouldn't get an answer talking about being theoretically tortured.

I spoke up, "I have one solution." I'd really been hoping to not use this.

"What is it?"

I wonder if this would work. "Say the name Contessa - no. Say 'Contessa Doctor Mother Cauldron'."

She sat backwards and squeezed her lips together. "Contessa Doctor Mother Cauldron."

A noise echoed from the kitchen, and a woman wearing a suit and fedora, holding a pistol walked into the room.

Tattletale stared at her and slowly rose in panic before falling unconscious, sliding down the couch.

Me and Contessa stood for a minute. She didn't even shuffle.

"Contessa," I spoke up.

 _That was unexpected._

"Hello? Who are you?" She looked beautiful. It was a shame that her brain was replaced by a parasitic alien. _Basically..._

I untensed a little and grinned. "Oh right. My name is 'Big Bad'. I am a _precog_ , for a timeline where we beat Scion." I paused. "If you want that to happen, you need to make Coil never learn who I am."

I paused, "And if you tell Cauldron squat," I licked my dry lips, "If you tell them who I am, or if they try to find out what I know, that timeline is _gone_."

"I -" Contessa stopped and cleared her throat. "I don't know if I believe you."

 _Another one.  
_

* * *

A/N: I'm avoiding repeating the same chapter over for the main cast. I kind of wanted to avoid it, but that's what you get when you include the main characters. Sorry!


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